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Cemetery in Mir

Mir | Belarus
biał. Mir (Мір)
ID: dok-000819-P

Cemetery in Mir

Mir | Belarus
biał. Mir (Мір)

Catholic cemetery with Polish gravestone monuments. Documentation (23 cards) and a plan (stored in the ICDNS) have been produced for the cemetery. Information about the cemetery has been published (see bibliography). According to Anna Lewkowska, Jacek Lewkowski and Wojciech Walczak, "the church cemetery in Mir is located in the centre of the village, at the intersection of asphalt roads, surrounded by urban development. The church square is rectangular in plan, enclosed by a partially demolished brick wall with a gate on the north-west side. On the square there is a brick church of St. Nicholas built in 1599-1605 (...) In the outer wall of the presbytery there is an epitaph plaque with a beautiful inscription dedicated to Father Jozef Dowoyno-Sylvestrowicz (died 1793), a Smolensk canon, who was the parish priest in Mir for 20 years. In the south-western corner of the cemetery there is a grave of three Polish soldiers killed in 1919-1920. (...) The state of preservation of the cemetery is sufficient."

The cited authors also describe a disused Catholic cemetery. It is located outside Miry, about 1 km from the church. It has a roughly rectangular plan and an unfenced area of 0.7 ha. It was established at the end of the 18th century. It is maintained in poor condition, but some 200 gravestones remain, mostly from the 19th century. The inscription: "D. O. M. / TU W BOGU RESTS / ANTONI PUZINOWSKI / LIVED 28 YEARS / DIED 1800". It is also worth noting the following inscription: "PRIEST DEAN ANTONI / MACKIEWICZ / AND HIS SISTER / ANNA / GAWŁOWA / MURDERED BY THE GERMANS / IN KOLDYCZEW IN 1942. / ETERNAL REST DEIGN TO GIVE THEM LORD".

The active Tatar cemetery, according to Lewkowski and Walczak, is located about 1.5 km from the town, has a roughly rectangular plan and an area of 0.25 ha. It is surrounded by an earth embankment. The oldest gravestone, dating from 1834, has the form of a granite boulder with an Arabic inscription. According to the aforementioned researchers, there are now several hundred tombstones, granite boulders and stelae in the cemetery, as Lewkowski and Walczak write. The inscriptions on most of them are in Arabic. A few dozen tombstones with inscriptions in Polish and Russian have also survived, for example on the grave of Zonya Shinkievich (d. 1920), daughter of the mullah. All the tombstones have a crescent moon with a star and a Koranic verse at the top." The inscription from Zonja Szinkiewicz's gravestone reads: 'ZDJES POKOITSJA ZONJA / DOCZ MU£ŁA ADAMA / I MATERIA CHANIFY / SZINKIEWICZ'.

The cited authors also describe another Jewish cemetery in Mir. It has an area of 2.1 hectares and a rectangular plan. It is fenced with a metal fence. The cemetery is maintained in good condition. To quote the researchers: "Several dozens of matzevot, rectangular vertical slabs or arched slabs dating from the 19th and early 20th centuries, have survived. In the field of the separated rectangle there is a contemporary ohel, made of silicate brick."

Bibliography:
  • „Cmentarze polskie poza granicami kraju” , raport, oprac. B. Gutowski, Warszawa 2022 (maszynopis).
  • Lewkowska Anna, Lewkowski Jacek, Walczak Wojciech, „Zabytkowe cmentarze na Kresach Wschodnich Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej. Wschodnie powiaty dawnego województwa białostockiego (obecnie na terenie Białorusi), Warszawa 2007.
Author:
Bartłomiej Gutowski, Dawid Mendrek
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