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ID: dok-000917-P

Novogrudok cemetery

Nowogródek | Belarus
biał. Nawahrudak (Навагрудак)
ID: dok-000917-P

Novogrudok cemetery

Nowogródek | Belarus
biał. Nawahrudak (Навагрудак)

City cemetery with Polish gravestone monuments. Documentation (38 sheets) and a plan (stored in the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage) 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 Catholic cemetery has a rectangular plan and an unfenced area of 1.1 ha. It was established at the end of the 18th century. In the centre there is a brick cemetery chapel from the 19th century.After the cited authors: "The cemetery is dominated by tombstones dating from the 1st half of the 20th century, but there are also a dozen preserved dating from the 1st half of the 19th century and several dozen from the 2nd half of the 19th century, with forms characteristic of the style of the time in which they were created. People of merit for the town and its surroundings, the clergy, landed gentry, doctors and military men are buried here, and there are also soldiers' quarters. Unfortunately, a few years ago, the cemetery was used for the filming of the film "Doroga czjeres kładbiszcze", and the existing tombstones were used as the scenery, which were knocked over for the filming. However, the cleaning work was never undertaken after the filming was completed, so many tombstones of significant artistic and historical value were left in the condition in which the film crew left them - overturned, fallen, damaged." The oldest tombstone that can be read, from 1802, is on the grave of Jozef Zaborski "D. O. M. / HERE RESTS / ALBRYCHT JOZEF / ZABORSKI / ROTMISTRZ OF THE / NOVGOROD PROVINCE / DIED ON 15 / DECEMBER 1802. / ASKS FOR THREE ANGELIC GREETINGS". Following the aforementioned researchers, "in the north-western corner is the grave of 60 victims of the Nazi atrocity, committed in the forest under the baskets on 31 July 1942 (...) Slightly further to the east are located the remains of the World War I German soldiers' quarters. The quarters are devastated, with only fragments of a modernistic vertical slab with faded inscriptions remaining. Next to it is located a granite quadrilateral block on the grave of "the eight members of the Belarusian Communist Party who died on 18.09.1939 in the fight to liberate Belarus from Polish, lordly oppression."

According to Lewkowski and Walczak, "in the south-eastern part of Novogrudok, on Internatsionalna Street, a Mizar is located. It is situated on an oblong hill, fenced with a metal fence and covers an area of 1.2 hectares. It was probably established at the end of the 18th century, on a rectangular plan (...). Several hundred tombstones have been preserved in the cemetery in the form of granite boulders, most of them broken, with engraved inscriptions on smooth surfaces. This form of gravestones can be found from the early 19th century to the present day. (...) The oldest gravestone in the cemetery with a legible inscription is the stone boulder on the grave of Jakub Muchla (d. 1828). Several tombstones date from the 1830s, and have inscriptions in Arabic or Polish, such as on the grave of Jakub Murzicz (d. 1838). Tatars from Novogrudok and the surrounding area rest here, including Captain Ivan Murza-Murzicz and Lieutenant Colonel of the Russian army Abraham Mustafa. The most recent burials date from the 1970s. (...) The state of preservation of the cemetery is quite good."

After the aforementioned authors: "in the eastern part of the town, at a distance of about 600 m south-east of the castle hill, there is a Jewish cemetery. The cemetery is located on a hill, is surrounded by municipal buildings and occupies an area of about 1.6 ha. It has the shape of an irregular polygon and is fenced with a metal fence, with an entrance gate on the northern side. Several dozen stone matzevot from the 19th and 20th centuries have been preserved in the cemetery. On the culmination of the hill is a vertical slab made of black granite, dedicated to the memory of the 11 thousand Jews living in Nowogródek and its surroundings, murdered by the Nazis during World War II. The plaque was founded in 1997 by Israeli citizens from the Novogrudok region. The area of the cemetery is overgrown with grass, without trees.

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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