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ID: dok-001058-P/109136

Cemetery in Višniavets

ID: dok-001058-P/109136

Cemetery in Višniavets

There is a Catholic cemetery in the western part of the town of Wisniowiec. The estimated area is about 0.3 ha. According to Zbigniew Hauser, its origins date back as far as the end of the 18th century. Approximately 20 tombstones have survived in the cemetery, most of them unnamed, damaged and dismembered. Their fragments testify to the fact that they were stately tombstones.

There is a classicist gate in the cemetery. It is plastered with an opening closed by a semicircular arch, topped by a triangular gable. A second, even more imposing object, in the Baroque style, is also considered by Hauser to be a gate, while other sources state that it is the remains of the Wiśniowiecki family burial chapel https://wolyn-metryki.pl/joomla/rozmaitosci/78-artykuly-metryki-wolyn/94-wyprawa . The structure is in the shape of a brick semicircular arcade supported by two columns with semi-columns at the front, pilasters at the sides and risalits at the back, surmounted by a damaged statue of a saint in the middle and two vases at the sides. In the light of the arcade is a monument - a cross on a two-stepped plinth with a figure of Christ and a kneeling figure at its base. This may have been the Crucifixion Group, but the other figures are missing. The first step of the plinth bears an inscription which is now barely legible and indicates the 18th century. The second step of the pedestal is framed by a bas-relief scene of Christ being scourged and crowned with thorns. To the left is a monument erected to members of the Wiśniowiecki and Mniszech families. It is an imposing obelisk on a base and four-stepped plinth with a cornice, made of black marble with an inscription in Polish and Latin.

In addition, there are several gravestones, two tombs and crosses on plinths between the scrub. The vast majority of the tombstones are nameless, cracked and dismembered. Zbigniew Hauser read out three inscriptions, which show dates of death from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

As recently as 2015 when the cemetery was being cleaned up by a group of volunteers from the Lublin-based Independence Foundation, the site was devastated, overgrown and the crypts were dug up https://wpolityce.pl/historia/262256-ruszyla-osma-edycja-obozu-wolyn-2015-recordatio-to-oni-ratuja-polskie-cmentarze-na-kresach-nasza-galeria-zdjec . In 2023, volunteers from Lutsk cleaned the cemetery, uprooted unnecessary bushes and trees, and thanks to the Three Trunks Foundation of the Radziwill family, an arcade with a monument was revalorised. http:// https://rzeszow.tvp.pl/65644284/wolontariusze-z-lucka-uporzadkowali-polski-cmentarz-w-wisniowcu

Bibliography:

  • Hauser Zbigniew, „Podróże po cmentarzach Ukrainy”, t. IV, „Województwa: wołyńskie, podolskie, bracławskie i kijowskie”, Kraków 2009, s. 145-148.

Author:

Alicja Czuber-Filonik
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