It was established in 1792 and is located in the Wola district. The cemetery bore witness to many historical events: fighting on its premises took place during the Kościuszko Uprising of 1794, the November Uprising (1830-1831) and the Warsaw Uprising (1944). The fence, the monuments and the architecture of the cemetery were all destroyed during the last of the afore-mentioned events, and were rebuilt in the second half of the 20th century. Despite the historical turmoil, many monuments of great artistic value have somehow managed to survive and still stand today - one of them being the Kronenberg Chapel, which is included in the National Historical Monument Register.
Among those buried at the cemetery are: Salomon Musonius (1724-1790), the first provost of the Evangelical Reformed parish in Warsaw; Katarzyna Sowińska (1776-1860), the wife of General Józef Longin Sowiński (killed in the November Uprising), as well as notable entrepreneur Ludwik Wincenty Norblin (1836-1914), writer Stefan Żeromski (1864-1925), singer Anna German (1936-1982) and poet and actor Jeremi Przybora (1915-2004).
A monument dedicated to those killed during the Nazi occupation of Poland is made out of the rubble of destroyed tombstones. The cemetery has many people of different ethnicity and faiths buried on its premises; this is due to the Protestant church's high level of tolerance of other religions and creeds, which means that the cemetery accepted the dead  who were not given a final resting place elsewhere... regardless of the individual's faith whilst alive.