Situated on the southern slope of św. Wojciecha Hill, it covers an area of 1.8 ha and is covered by beautiful woods made up of old trees. It is one of the oldest cemeteries in Poznań, being created in 1810 as St Mary Magdalene parish church cemetery. From the end of the 19th century, when the parish got a new cemetery in what is today Grunwaldzka Street, it has been known as the old parish church. It was raised to the status of memorial cemetery in 1948.
Near the entrance there is a Baroque statue of Our Lady (1771), which used to stand in front of the former Reformists' monastery in Śródka until it was moved here in 1829. Many sepulchral monuments are notable for their artistic value, such as the statue of Aniela Dembińska nee Liszkowska (died in 1888) made in 1889 by Władysław Marcinkowski in Paris. The oldest preserved tombstones come from 1813 and 1815. The necropolis is a resting place of many eminent citizens of Poznań and Great Poland, veterans of the Napoleon Wars and the national insurrections, social activists, scientists and artists. Many of them had their ashes transferred here from other cemeteries in the years 1959-62.
Among others, the cemetery has the graves of the former mayors, eminent doctors, scientists, artists. In 1994 the Polish Tatra Mountains Society erected a stone in the cemetery commemorating "The Great Poland citizens who did not return from the mountains". In the lowest part of the necropolis, where there are no gravestones, lie remains of the victims of cholera, which plagued Poznań several times in the years 1831-78.