The cemetery in Szydłów is not only a place of burial, but also part of a Marian shrine. At the site of the apparitions – around the stone where Mary appeared to the shepherdesses – a small wooden chapel was erected before 1651. Around it, close to the holy site, the faithful began to be buried.

The cemetery in Szydłów lies on the axis of the church – the shrine to the Mother of God – situated less than 500 metres to the east. The terrain is slightly undulating; it once lay outside the boundaries of the settlement, but today it is surrounded by residential buildings.

Burials in this area date back to the first half of the 17th century, that is , to the time of the apparitions and the earliest expressions of devotion to Mary in Szydłów. A formal cemetery was established alongside the construction of a wooden church, consecrated in 1651. It was built around the stone upon which the Mother of God had appeared, complaining that there was no church in the village. This first, presumably small, cemetery was significantly expanded towards the end of the 18th century ( the old section now covers approximately 2.50 ha). This took place when the new church was built (1760–1786), directly within the town, closer to the market square. The original church then became both a chapel dedicated to the apparitions and a cemetery chapel.

The years 1912–1924 brought major changes to the layout of the cemetery, when, on the site of the wooden church, a monumental chapel was erected to a design by the eminent Vilnius architect Antoni Wiwulski (1877–1919), who was educated in Vienna and Paris. It is one of the few surviving works by this extraordinary artist, whose other works include the Grunwald Monument in Kraków and the Monument to the Three Crosses in Vilnius. Although he received a classical, academic education, he sought new approaches in architecture and sculpture, advocating the then-modern style – modernism. Wiwulski’s Chapel, like its predecessors, combines the functions of a cemetery chapel and a sanctuary chapel, safeguarding the site of the apparition. The shape of the building is unique, as it is essentially a tower – an obelisk reaching a height of 44 metres, rising from a square with sides measuring approximately 10 metres. It is visible from a great distance, all the more so as it was built at the highest point of the cemetery. The façade of the building features an arcaded portico enclosing the entrance, and above it a monumental cross, against which a relief of the Virgin Mary with the Infant Jesus is set. The other façades feature pointed-arch windows with stained-glass panes. Inside the chapel, the stone of the apparitions and a marble statue of the Virgin Mary catch the eye ; the latter was brought from London by Tadeusz Józef Bukaty ( 1740–1795), the parish priest of Szydłowiec and, at the same time, suffragan bishop of Samogitia.

On the southern side of the chapel, a low catacomb chapel—built into the steep slope of the cemetery in the 1830s and subsequently modernised—follows the contour of the hill. Its façade was clad in fieldstones. The building was divided into sections belonging to various families (including the Strawińskis), with individual catacombs, covered by epitaph plaques, situated between them. The entrances to the family chapels are framed by neo-Gothic portals. The epitaph plaques, however, bear inscriptions in Polish and Lithuanian. One of them bears the inscription: ‘TO THE SHADOWS / OF JERZY AND TERESSA KON / TRYMOW, PARENTS OF GABRY = / ELA AND URSZULA KONTRY= / MOWNY, CHILDREN OF THE DECEASED = / ŁOSNI ANNA Z KONTRY= / MOW KUSZEIEWSKA K:W:P: / WIDOW, TOGETHER WITH HER BROTHER / LEON KONTRYM OBOZ=/ (NY) WE DEDICATE THIS MONUMENT / TO INSPIRE PIETIOUS / PRAYERS IN PASSERS-BY / 12th DAY OF AUGUST 1833”. Another commemorates Father Kasperowicz: “The late / Father Kaspers / Kasperowicz / died in the year 1876 / 20 DECEMBER / AT THE AGE OF 77 / A PASSING PRAYER [!]”.

In the old section of the cemetery ( until 1939; the new section occupies the headland adjoining it on the south-eastern side), which is square in shape, one can find gravestones dating from the early 19th century and later . Many of them commemorate local landowners: the Billewicz , Butkiewicz, Dowkont, Klimontt, Kontrym, Korew, Strumiłł, Wierzbicki and Zaleski families , as well as the Piłsudski family. The gravestones provide an overview of the most significant sepulchral forms from the 19th and 20th centuries. The oldest and most valuable – being in the Classical style – are of the chapel type. These are vertical structures built of brick, plastered and topped with a tiled roof. There is also a considerable number of cast-iron crosses on either concrete or stone plinths. Granite stelae are also found here and there.