Mirogoj, the central Zagreb cemetery is located on the slopes of Medvednica and it is considered to be one of the most beautiful cemeteries in Europe. Apart from that, Mirogoj is also a splendid park and an art gallery in the open. As numerous famous persons had been placed to rest here, Mirogoj is also called the Croatian Pantheon.
In the 1860's the cemeteries in Zagreb were all crammed and it was of  utmost necessity to find and design a space for a new town burial ground. The City Council came to negotiate with the Archbishopric in 1872 to close down several of the smaller cemeteries which had turned their assets in for the purchase of a new building site where a collective cemetery would be positioned. This is how in 1873 the city council met the conditions to purchase a building ground at an auction of Ljudevit Gaj's assets. That same year can be seen as the year that the Zagreb Mirogoj was established, although the cemetery's official opening was on 6th November 1876.  
The cemeteries in the mid 19th century were separate, scattered and belonged to different denominations and parishes. Now it has been decided to build a unified central cemetery for denominations. Contrary to the old Zagreb cemeteries in the ownership of churches, Mirogoj came to be owned by the city council. Shortly after its opening, it received a statute of a collective cemetery, thereby making it a general collective cemetery for all denominations.  Furthermore it is accentuated that „each denomination is being alloted a special space, coresponding to the number of its followers“ and that“followers of all religions have equal rights and obligations with regard to the cemetery“. The statute mentions the spatial organisation of the cemetery- it consisted of an exterior and an interior part which together made a unit.  The outer part was designed as a park following the English landscape design without burial places, while the inner part was meant for burials. "The inner part is being distanced from the outer to the west along its entire length by a magnificent building which comprises burial places beneath arches, portals and churches for different religious services.“  The cemetery was divided into four parts according to denominations: for burying people of the Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Jewish faith. No fences were allowed between different religious burial grounds