Rasų Kapinės Catholic Cemetery (Rasų Kapinės) was established in 1801. The necropolis consists of parts called Old and New Rasos, with a total area of 10.8 ha. It is the largest and most valuable of Vilnius' old cemeteries, picturesquely situated on hills covered with old-growth forest. It presents great historical value as the burial place of many famous people, as well as artistic value, due to its valuable objects of sepulchral art and architecture.

Near the main gate leading to the Old Rossa area, there is a military cemetery with a mausoleum of 'Mother and Son's Heart' - a monument hiding the heart of Marshal Józef Piłsudski and the remains of his mother, Maria née Billewicz. Polish soldiers killed in the years 1919-1920, in September 1939, and Home Army soldiers killed in the Operation 'Ostra Brama' in July 1944, are buried in the military quarters. A gate leads to the walled cemetery, where a chapel with the image of Our Lady of the Dawn Gate is located.

At Neue Rossa there is, among other things, a small military cemetery. Polish and Lithuanian soldiers who died during the battle for Vilnius in October 1920 are buried here. In addition to them, five soldiers from the Vilnius Self-Defence who died in street fights with the Germans and Bolsheviks in late December 1918 and early January 1919 are buried there. Consecrated in 1930, the column standing in the middle of the cemetery with the inscription "Vilnius to its saviours" was originally crowned by a sculpture of an eagle.

In Old Rossa, in the centre of the oldest part of the cemetery, there is a neo-Gothic pre-burial chapel, built in the years 1841-1850. The construction of this brick chapel began on the initiative of Father Jozef Bohdanowicz, the last visitator of the missionary priests, and was completed by Jan Waszkiewicz, professor of political economy at Vilnius University. It was designed by the architect Tomasz Tyszecki in neo-Gothic style.

In 1888, the well-known Vilnius physician Dr Hilary Radushkevich built a new brick tower on the site of the wooden belfry next to the chapel, designed by architect Julian Januszewski. Under the tower is a chapel-oratory, and in the crypt is the family tomb of the founder. On the wall of the chapel is the epitaph of Dr Raduszkiewicz. However, the storied columbarium erected on Ross in 1802-1807 has not survived to our times.

Among the famous people buried at Stara Rossa are professors of Stefan Batory University, historian Joachim Lelewel, architect Juliusz Kłos, Juliusz Słowacki's father Euzebiusz Słowacki and the poet's stepfather August Bécu, Adam Mickiewicz's friend - philomath Onufry Pietraszkiewicz, sculptors Antoni Wiwulski, Bolesław Bałzukiewicz, Józef Kozłowski, architect Karol Podczaszyński, painters Franciszek Smuglewicz, Józef Bałzukiewicz, and the Marshal's brother, Senator Adam Piłsudski, the Marshal's first wife, Maria Piłsudska, the writer Władysław Syrokomla, the archaeologist and collector Eustachy Tyszkiewicz, the landowner, banker and philanthropist Józef Montwiłł, the historian Juliusz Kłos, the publisher and collector Jan Kazimierz Wilczyński, the Rev. Bronisław Żongołłowicz, Lithuanian painter and composer Mikalojus Čiurlionis, Lithuanian politician and social activist, one of the signatories of the 1918 Act of Independence of Lithuania. Jonas Basanavičius.

The bronze sculpture of an angel on the grave of Iza Salmonowiczówna, made in 1903 by Warsaw sculptor Leopold Wasilkowski, is considered the most beautiful tomb monument on Rossa.

Protection and conservation of the Ross Cemetery
At present, the management of the Ross Cemetery is under the responsibility of the Vilnius city government, but care of the necropolis is also provided by social organisations, scouts, students of Polish schools and students of the Vilnius branch of the University of Bialystok, and residents of the city.

In 1990, with the support of Jerzy Waldorff, the Social Committee for the Care of Stara Rossa was established. It was Jerzy Waldorff who invited Vilnius residents to the annual fund-raising at Warsaw's Powązki cemetery and suggested that during the collection there would always be a can to collect money for the restoration of the Vilnius Rossa. The noble initiative of the Vilnius guardians of cultural heritage, including the current chairperson of the Committee, Alicja Klimaszewska, and the late editor Halina Jotkiałło, journalist Jerzy Surwiłło and physician Olgierd Korzeniecki, continues to be supported by private individuals, companies, public institutions, schools, universities, Polish diplomatic missions and associations.

Funds are raised, among others, during the collection of money on November 1 and 2, e.g. at the Warsaw Powazki cemetery, collected by the Poznan branch of the Vilnius and Vilnius Land Lovers Society and the Social Committee "Poznaners of Rossa and ...", they also come from the sale of bric-a-brac issued on the initiative of the Committee. The Committee co-organises cleaning of the Rossa cemetery and other Vilnius necropolises, collects candles "Give a Light to Rossa", organises educational campaigns, and also monitors the condition of the cemetery reacting to any threats and acts of vandalism. Thanks to the efforts of the Committee, more than 80 tombstones have already been renovated, as well as new tombstones of such distinguished figures as Bolesław Bałzukiewicz, Antoni Wiwulski, Juliusz Kłos and Karol Podczaszyński. In 2010, on the initiative of the Committee, the website http://www.rossa.lt was launched.

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of its activities, the Social Committee for the Care of Stara Rossa published a book dedicated to the Vilnius necropolis and its caretakers. The album "Social Committee for the Care of Stara Rossa" was published thanks to the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland granted to the Foundation "Assistance to Poles in the East" in the framework of the competition "Cooperation with the Polish community and Poles abroad". Part of the costs were covered by the Committee from its own funds.

These efforts to protect Polish cultural heritage do not go unnoticed. The Social Committee for the Care of Stara Rossa was honoured with the Prof. Aleksander Gieysztor Award, awarded by the Kronenberg Foundation at Citi Handlowy (2014), and the chairperson Alicja Klimaszewska became in 2015, among others. She was awarded the Guardian of the Heritage of the Republic Award, established by the Marshal of the Senate of the Republic of Poland Bogdan Borusewicz, as well as the highest award granted by the Lithuanian Parliament for her contribution to the restoration of Lithuania's independence, social activity and care for the protection of cultural heritage, nurturing and promoting traditions (2016), and the most prestigious award granted by the Vilnius local government - the Award of St Christopher, the patron saint of the city (2016).

For several years, the conservation work at the Ross Cemetery has been financially supported by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. Polish organisations that are beneficiaries of funds from the Programme "Protection of Cultural Heritage Abroad" and conservators working at the cemetery, both in the selection of objects and in the implementation of conservation projects, cooperate with the Social Committee for the Care of Old Rossa.

Conservation work has been carried out on, among others, the tombstones of Eusebius Słowacki and August Bécu, Feliks Tański, Konstanty Jeleński, the devastated cast-iron tombstone of Aurelia Radecka-Mikuliczowa, née Jakowicz, and the "Black Angel" - the tombstone monument of Iza Salmonowiczówna.

Thanks to the developing cooperation of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland (Department of Cultural Heritage Abroad and War Losses and the National Heritage Institute) with the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture (Department of Cultural Heritage) and the Local Government of the City of Vilnius, there is now a chance to expand the activities related to the rescue of the Ross Cemetery, an additional element of which has become the efforts of the Vilnius local authorities to obtain European funds. These funds are to be used primarily to stabilise the area of the necropolis, solve the problem of landslide slopes, the rainwater drainage system and traffic routes.

An important part of learning about both the history and the current state of the necropolis was the project 'Ross Cemetery. Inventory research', funded by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Poland as part of the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities.

The project was carried out by the Institute of Art History of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw in cooperation with the Lithuanian Pedagogical University (Lithuanian: Lietuvos edukologijos universitetas). The research project, coordinated by Dr Anna Czyż and Dr Bartłomiej Gutowski, involved the study of historical, artistic, literary and iconographic sources, inventory work, photographic documentation and the publication and dissemination of research results. It resulted in the website http://rossa.sztuka.edu.pl containing, among other things, a database of tombstones located in the Ross cemetery http://cmentarznarossie.info.