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Basilian Cemetery in Kremenets

ID: dok-000102-P/75527

Basilian Cemetery in Kremenets

Basilian Cemetery is a former Uniate necropolis located near the Orthodox monastery complex. It was established around 1760 https://www.dziedzictwo.org/projekty/konserwacja-nagrobkow-w-krzemiencu/ . Over time, as a result of the suppression of the Uniate faith, it was taken over by the Orthodox Church. Catholic burials took place until 1891, which is why Catholic gravestones have been preserved in the older part of the cemetery, in an area of about 1 ha near the chapel from the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. However, for many years they were completely neglected and fell into disrepair. Some did not survive the Soviet era.

Between 2018 and 2023, the Polonica Institute implemented a programme to carry out conservation work at the cemetery. Sixteen tombstones were thoroughly restored, others were cleaned, the grounds were brought into order and the necessary archival queries were carried out https://polonika.pl/programy/programy-strategiczne/ochrona/158396836 .

In his publication Zbigniew Hauser lists a dozen or so of the most important tombstones indicating at the same time that the results of a detailed inventory of the cemetery were presented in the book "Krzemienieckie nekropolie" by Beata Marcisz and Szczepan Rudka.

First of all, it is worth noting the tombstones of professors of the famous Liceum Krzemienieckie (formerly the Gymnasium of Volhynia), whose most distinguished graduate was Juliusz Słowacki. Hauser mentioned a massive stone obelisk-pyramid on the grave of the headmaster Andrzej Lewicki (d. 1830), a stone cross with the figure of the crucified Christ on a profiled plinth on a multi-stepped base with an elaborate inscription on the grave of the court councillor and headmaster of the school in Krzemieniec, Michał Ściborski (d. 1847) and a monument on the grave of Willibald Besser, a Polish professor and botanist of German origin (d. 1842) in the shape of a sandstone plinth covered with a profiled slab topped with four pinnacles and acroterions in the corners. Other impressive monuments include the gravestones of Franciszek Szlamowski, Franciszka Majewska Kollaper and Kornelia Cziszak: a low sandstone column with engraved inscriptions surmounted by a vase or the monument to Filip Spendowski: a sandstone plinth bearing a rhymed inscription and surmounted by a vase. In the cemetery, apart from monuments of complex form and rich ornamentation, there are also more modest cast-iron crosses on pedestals or "Podolski" crosses. Nevertheless, the Polish gravestones in the Basilian cemetery are in every respect an exceptionally valuable cultural heritage.

Cemetery with Polish gravestones. Documentation (138 tombstone cards) has been made for the cemetery, stored in the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as well as conservation documentation. Information on the cemetery published (see bibliography).

Bibliography:

  • „Cmentarze polskie poza granicami kraju” , raport, oprac. B. Gutowski, Warszawa 2022 (maszynopis).
  • Karta dokumentacyjna obiektu zabytkowego poza granicami kraju, powiat nadwórniański, zbiór przechowywany w Ministerstwie Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego, Warszawa..
  • Hauser Zbigniew, „Podróże po cmentarzach Ukrainy”, t. IV, „Województwa: wołyńskie, podolskie, bracławskie i kijowskie”, Kraków 2009, s. 78-80.
  • Krzemienieckie nekropolie: cmentarz Polski oraz polskie zabytki sztuki nagrobnej w Krzemieńcu, oprac. Beata Marcisz, Szczepan Rudka, Warszawa 1999.

Author:

Bartłomiej Gutowski, Alicja Czuber-Filonik
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