At the end of the 18th century, a new municipal cemetery was built in Turčianske Sv. Martin on a small hill surrounded by Medokýš Brook. It began to be profiled as solely “national” at the end of the 19th century, when the graves of personalities who continued to work in Martin even after the closure of Matica Slovenská as editors, publishers and printers of Slovak newspapers and books, museum workers, amateur theater artists, as well as Slovak businessmen, were gradually added to it. They were people who contributed significantly to the preservation of Slovak national life even during a period extremely unfavorable for small nations in Hungary.

However, the official name of the National Cemetery dates back to 1967, when the cemetery was declared a National Cultural Monument. Currently, the National Cemetery, which is managed by the town of Martin in cooperation with the Slovak National Library, has more than 3,500 grave sites, of which around 400 belong to important personalities of Slovak cultural and social life. The Slovak National Library manages 43 tombstones and provides guided tours of the National Cemetery.