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ID: dok-000550-P/82148

Cemetery on Lustodorfskaja Doroga Street in Odessa

ID: dok-000550-P/82148

Cemetery on Lustodorfskaja Doroga Street in Odessa

The cemetery in the centre of Odessa known as the Second Christian Cemetery is a necropolis that is still active and extensive: with an area of about 50 hectares. Although it is now heavily mixed in terms of religion, and there are no clear boundaries between the burials of different faiths, there is a gate on the eastern side leading, as indicated by an inscription in Polish and Russian, to the Catholic cemetery. Catholic tombstones with inscriptions in various languages are located in this section. Zbigniew Hauser found several monuments with Polish inscriptions. There are also tombstones with Polish-sounding names, but the inscription is in Cyrillic characters. Six of the gravestones described by Hauser are from the post-war period. In the quarters of the Catholic priests there are four tombstones of clergymen with Polish inscriptions who died between 1895 and 1913. Noteworthy is the monument on the grave of Halusi Kowal, who died in 1929 at the age of five. It is a sculpture of a child with a wreath in her hand on a rock. An elaborate rhymed inscription is engraved on the inscription sheet. In turn, the rocks topped by a stone cross with a cast-iron figure of the crucified Christ and cast-iron branches, set on a magnificent slab, commemorate the victims of the NKVD in 1930. The inscription is in Polish.

In 2018, on the initiative of the association of Poles in Odessa "Polska Nuta", a group of 35 volunteers cleaned up the part of the cemetery with Polish tombstones - several dozen tombstones were weeded and cleaned. Unfortunately, it was noticed that more Polish tombstones disappear if they are abandoned, and new ones of other faiths appear in their place. This is due to such management, which is primarily concerned with making space available for modern burials https://slowopolskie.org/sprzatanie-polskich-grobow-w-odessie-i-mikolajowie/ .

Cemetery with Polish gravestone monuments. Documentation has been produced for the cemetery (14 cards) and a cemetery charter (stored in the ICDNS). Information about the cemetery published (see bibliography).

Bibliography:

  • „Cmentarze polskie poza granicami kraju” , raport, oprac. B. Gutowski, Warszawa 2022 (maszynopis).
  • Hauser Zbigniew, „Podróże po cmentarzach Ukrainy”, t. IV, „Województwa: wołyńskie, podolskie, bracławskie i kijowskie”, Kraków 2009, s. 485-487.

Author:

Bartłomiej Gutowski, Alicja Czuber-Filonik
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