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ID: dok-000829-P

Cemetery in Nalibaki

Naliboki | Belarus
biał. Nałibaki (Налібакі)
ID: dok-000829-P

Cemetery in Nalibaki

Naliboki | Belarus
biał. Nałibaki (Налібакі)

Cemetery with Polish gravestone monuments. Information about the cemetery has been published (see bibliography). According to Anna Lewkowska, Jacek Lewkowski and Wojciech Walczak, the cemetery is located on the eastern side of Nalibki. It has a roughly square plan, 0.9 hectares in area and is fenced with a stone wall. Two churches were built on the church yard. The older, wooden one was built at the beginning of the 18th century and was rebuilt several times. The newer one, made of brick, was built in the inter-war period. According to the aforementioned authors, there are currently six tombstones in the cemetery dating back to the 19th century. The oldest, dating from 1850, crowns the grave of Father Józef Ruszczyc. The inscription reads: "XSIĘDZU JÓZEFOWI RUSZCZYCOWI / DZIEKAN KOBRYŃSKI, PLEBANOW / NALIBOCKIEU NA WIECZNĄ PAMĄTKĘ / 1850 ROKU MAJA 18 DNIA / PROSECUTE FOR THE DEVOTION / MARY". The cemetery is maintained in good condition.

According to Lewkowski and Walczak, the active Catholic cemetery borders the church cemetery to the north. It has a rectangular plan, an area of 3.6 hectares and is surrounded by a wooden fence. It is maintained in good condition. It was created in the 1st half of the 19th century. It is divided by a path into an older and a newer part. Among the oldest gravestones is the tombstone crowning the burial place of Helena Ruszczycowa with a cast iron crucifix and the inscription: "IN MEMORY OF MOTHER / HELENA OF WERESZCZAK / RUSZCZYCOWA / SON DEDICATES 1842 / YEAR OF MARCH 20 D." In the cemetery there is a cross of the Polish Graves Guard commemorating the soldiers of the Home Army (AK) of the Stolpec-nalibok grouping. In the newer part of the cemetery a contemporary monument to the victims of World War II has been erected. According to the aforementioned researchers, "in recent years, many old cast-iron tombstones have been stolen from the cemetery and taken away for scrap. According to the accounts of local residents, the removal of tombstones taking place not only at night, but also during the day, is given the pretext of being taken to a museum in Minsk."
The kresy24.pl website reported on Andrei Burdenkov, a guide and translator who attempted to digitise the tombstones. ""A specially developed Android programme accurately locates the site via GPS, indicates the location, to the nearest metre. To add a tombstone to the map, a virtual cemetery must first be created. Each grave has to be photographed and located accordingly. In the free app I started working with, the coordinates of each gravestone had to be entered manually," Andrei said." He started his work from the cemetery in Nalibaki. (cf. https://kresy24. pl/groby-swoich-przodkow-na-bialorusi-znajdziesz-w-internecie/ )

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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