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ID: dok-000547-P/82135

Cemetery in Molchany

ID: dok-000547-P/82135

Cemetery in Molchany

The Catholic cemetery in Molchany is located less than a kilometre south of the parish church. The necropolis, with an area of about 1.5 hectares, is hidden in a grove and relatively well preserved. Most of the tombstones have inscriptions in Polish. Zbigniew Hauser found 22 gravestones in the cemetery with Polish inscriptions, as well as one with inscriptions in Polish, Russian, Latin and one with an inscription in French. In addition, he also noted the presence of numerous nameless "Podolia" crosses. The origins of the cemetery date back to the first half of the 19th century - the oldest preserved tombstones are from the 1830s and 1840s.

A common form of tombstone in the cemetery is a knotted trunk - sometimes topped with a knotted cross; there are also tombstones in the form of rocks and, of course, crosses (not always preserved) on plinths, as well as figures of saints, but without larger fragments. Black, grey and white marble was used for some of the gravestones. However, this was not Carrara marble, but from Korostyshev, where the stone was quarried by the Riccolatti family, who own one of the more famous stone workshops in Kiev, providing a high level of service http://https://www.interesniy.kiev.ua/ru/spivuchi-arhitektori/ . The most beautiful monument in Molchany is precisely the tombstone signed with this name: "Cyril Riccolatti, Kiev, Nemeckaja S.", under which Sophia Levicka (d. 1912) and Tekla Blaszczykiewicz (d. 1901) were buried. The monument is very impressive: a black plinth with engraved inscriptions on three sides is crowned by a white marble sculpture of a thoughtful young woman supporting her head with her right hand and holding a wreath in her left. A trace is left of the photograph. Hauser mentions that the monument is very well preserved. Another impressive gravestone is a white marble monument with an inscription in French from the 1870s. It features a sculpture of a woman embracing a cross on a high plinth surrounded by four columns.

In 2016, as part of the Studio East Foundation's campaign, the cemetery was largely cleaned up, the inscriptions were restored, the entrances to the tombs were secured and the entrance to the cemetery was exposed http://studiowschod.org.pl/molczany2016.htm .

Cemetery with Polish grave monuments. 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. 404-408.

Author:

Bartłomiej Gutowski, Alicja Czuber-Filonik
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