Rasos cemetery
The Rasos Cemetery (lit. Rasų kapinės , Polish Cmentarz Na Rossie ) is the oldest and most famous cemetery in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius , in the Rasos district . It bears its name after the district surrounding it. The narrow Sukilėliai Street separates an old and a new part; the total area is 10.8 ha . Since 1990, burials have only been carried out in existing family graves.
history
Many sources give 1769 as the year of foundation. However, some historians believe that the numbers are reversed and assume the correct date to be 1796. On April 24, 1801, the new cemetery was consecrated. Two days later, John Muller , the city's mayor, was the first to be buried in the cemetery. In July of the same year an official document was drawn up that set the size of the cemetery at 3.51 hectares and stipulated that the burial should be free of charge for all citizens of the city. The Rasos Cemetery was the first cemetery in Vilnius, which was not at a church.
1802–1807 two five-storey columbaria , connected at right angles, were built, but they were demolished during the Soviet era. A neo-Gothic brick chapel was built between the columbaria in 1844–1850 , and a matching bell tower was added in 1888 . A brick wall replaced an original wooden fence that burned in 1812; Parts of this are still preserved.
In 1814 the authorities bought land from a private landowner to expand the cemetery, which is now called Literatenhügel ( Lithuanian : Literatų kalnelis ). In 1847 the Orthodox Christians opened their own cemetery in Rasos, which was used to take in deceased soldiers and poor people in a nearby monastery hospice. That is why it is now called the orphan cemetery ( Našlaičių kapinės ).
The Soviets closed the cemetery in 1967 and left it neglected. In 1980 it should give way to a planned expressway. Public outrage and economic difficulties caused the state power to refrain from this plan. After the collapse of the Soviet Union , the Lithuanian and Polish authorities worked together to restore the cemetery.
Military cemetery
In 1920, a small military cemetery was created near the entrance for the soldiers who died in the city during the Polish-Soviet and Polish-Lithuanian wars. It was rebuilt from 1935 to 1936 by Wojciech Jastrzębowski , who also designed the tombstone for the heart of Józef Piłsudskis .
The three-man honor guard of the cemetery refused to lay down their arms on September 18, 1939, when the Red Army marched in, were shot and immediately buried. Part of the cemetery houses graves of soldiers from the Polish Home Army from World War II . They were destroyed after the war and restored in 1993 with Polish support.
Known graves
Numerous well-known people of Polish , Lithuanian and Belarusian origin are buried in the cemetery, including more than 50 professors from Vilnius University . These include:
- Jonas Basanavičius (1851–1927), doctor, scientist, politician and co-signer of the Lithuanian Declaration of Independence
- Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875–1911), painter and composer
- Laurynas Gucevičius (1753–1798), architect
- Joachim Lelewel (1786–1861), historian. Professor at Vilnius University
- The heart of Józef Piłsudski (1867–1935), Polish statesman. His mother, two brothers and his first wife are also buried in the Rasos cemetery.
- Antoni Wiwulski (1877–1919), architect and sculptor
A mass grave contains the remains of Poles who were kidnapped by the Bolsheviks from Vilnius in 1919 and shot in Daugavpils .
Individual references and sources
- ^ Vida Girininkienė, Algirdas Paulauskas: Vilniaus nekropolis ir panteonas . In: Mokslas ir gyvenimas . No. 11, 1980. ISSN 0134-3084 . (lit.)
- ↑ Juozas Lebionka. Laurynas Gucevičius palaidotas Rasos . Voruta, No. 20 (542), 23 October 2003 ( Memento of the original from March 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- Bronius Kviklys: Lietuvos bažnyčios. V tomas: Vilniaus arkiviskupija. I dalis: Istoriniai bruožai Vilniaus miesto bažnyčios. Amerikos lietuvių bibliotekos Leidykla, Chicago IL 1985, ISBN 0-932042-54-6 , pp. 407-413.
Web links
- Leaflet with site plan (lit .; PDF file; 188 kB)
- photos
Coordinates: 54 ° 40 ′ 6 ″ N , 25 ° 18 ′ 16 ″ E