Powązki Cemetery

Powązki Cemetery
Cmentarz Powązkowski
Example of lavish tombstones at the cemetery

Details
Established	4 November 1790^[1]
Location	Warsaw
Country	Poland
Coordinates	52°15′07″N 20°58′22″E / 52.25194°N 20.97278°E / 52.25194; 20.97278
Type	Public
Size	43 hectares (110 acres)^[1]
No. of graves	over 1 million^[2]
Website	Unofficial website
Find a Grave	Powązki Cemetery

Powązki Cemetery (Polish pronunciation: [pɔˈvɔ̃skʲi]; Polish: Cmentarz Powązkowski), also known as Stare Powązki (English: Old Powązki), is a historic necropolis located in Wola district, in the western part of Warsaw, Poland. It is the most famous cemetery in the city and one of the oldest, having been established in 1790. It is the burial place of many illustrious individuals from Polish history. Some are interred along the "Avenue of the Distinguished" – Aleja Zasłużonych, created in 1925. It is estimated that over 1 million people are buried at Powązki.^[2]

The cemetery is often confused with the newer Powązki Military Cemetery, which is located to the north-west of Powązki Cemetery.

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History

Powązki Cemetery was established on 4 November 1790 on land donated by nobleman Melchior Szymanowski, and consecrated on 20 May 1792. Initially it covered an area of only about 2.5 ha. In the same year Saint Karol Boromeusz Church, designed by Dominik Merlini, was built on the northern edge of the cemetery. The catacombs were erected soon thereafter.

Several other cemeteries were founded in the area: the Jewish cemetery, and those of the Calvinist, Lutheran, Caucasian and Tatar communities. The Orthodox cemetery is also located in the vicinity.

As in many old European cemeteries, some of the tombstones in Powązki were created by renowned sculptors, both Polish and foreign. Some of the monuments are examples of the then prevailing styles in art and architecture.

On All Saints Day (1 November) and Zaduszki (2 November) in Warsaw, vigils are held not only in the Roman Catholic cemeteries, but in the Protestant, Muslim, Jewish and Orthodox cemeteries as well. At Powązki Cemetery, many graves are lit up by Votive candles.

Notable burials

A few of the notables buried here are:

Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska (1834–1861), composer
Izabela Barcińska née Chopin, (1811–1881), younger sister of Fryderyk Chopin
Anna Bilińska (1857–1893), painter
Wojciech Bogusławski (1757–1829), writer, actor, director
Stefan Bryła (1886–1943), notable for first welding bridge-Maurzyce Bridge
Jan Gotlib Bloch (1836–1902), banker, railroad entrepreneur, philanthropist, economist, economist and social activist
Emilia Chopin (1812–1827), youngest sister of Fryderyk Chopin
Ludwika Jędrzejewicz née Chopin (1807–1855), oldest sister of Fryderyk Chopin
Mikołaj Chopin (1771–1844), father of Fryderyk Chopin
Tekla Justyna Chopin (1782–1861), mother of Fryderyk Chopin
Halina Chrostowska (1929–1990), printmaker, activist, and educator
Gerard Antoni Ciołek (1909–1966), architect and historian of gardens
Ignacy Dobrzyński (1807–1867), composer
Jerzy Duszyński (1917–1978), actor
Józef Elsner (1769–1854), composer and conductor. Piano teacher of Fryderyk Chopin.
Władysław Filipkowski (1892–1950), military commander
Pola Gojawiczyńska (1896–1963), writer
Józef Gosławski, (1908–1963), sculptor and medallic artist
Marceli Godlewski (1865–1945), Righteous Among the Nations
Leopold Janikowski (1855–1942), meteorologist, explorer and ethnographer
Stanisław Janikowski (1891–1965), Polish diplomat
Stefan Jaracz (1883–1945), actor
Jan Kiepura (1902–1966), singer and actor
Krzysztof Kieślowski (1941–1996), film director
Jan Kiliński (1760–1819), freedom fighter
Stefan Kisielewski (1911–1991), art critic and writer
Stanislava Klimashevskaya (1851–1939), photographer and studio owner
Tomasz Knapik (1943–2021), film, radio and television reader
Krzysztof Komeda (1931–1969), jazz composer
Alfred Kowalski (1849–1915), painter
Henryk Kuna (1885–1945), sculptor
Witold Lutosławski (1913–1994), composer
Józefat Ignacy Łukasiewicz (1789–1850), painter-artist
Maciej Masłowski (1901–1976), art historian
Stanisław Masłowski (1853–1926), painter-artist
Witold Małcużyński (1914–1977), classical pianist
Stefan Mazurkiewicz (1888–1945), co-founder of the Warsaw school of mathematics
Jerzy Mierzejewski (1917–2012), artist and pedagogue
Stanisław Moniuszko (1819–1872), composer
Janusz Nasfeter (1920–1998) – film director and screenwriter; moved in 2018 from the Służew Old Cemetery
Ola Obarska (1910–1992), singer and actress
Antoni Osuchowski (1849–1928), philanthropist and national activist
Piotr Pawlukiewicz (1960–2020), Roman Catholic priest, doctor of pastoral theology
Lech Pijanowski (1928–1974), film-maker and game designer
Jerzy Pniewski (1913–1989), physicist^[3]
Bolesław Prus (1847–1912), journalist and novelist
Grzegorz Przemyk (1964–1983), poet murdered by Milicja Obywatelska
Kazimierz Pużak (1883–1950), died in the Communist prison, secretly buried in Powązki
Halina Regulska (1899–1994), racing driver, socialite, author, member of Polish resistance movement in World War II
Władysław Reymont (1867–1925), Nobel Prize-winning novelist
Edward Rydz-Śmigły (1886–1941), politician, statesman, Marshal of Poland and Commander-in-Chief of Poland's armed forces
Ireneusz Roszkowski (1910–1996), gynaecologist
Irena Sendlerowa (1910–2008), head of Children's Section of the Żegota
Wacław Sierpiński (1882–1969), mathematician
Andrzej Sołtan (1897–1959), physicist
Zbigniew Ścibor-Rylski (1917–2018), military commander, participant of the Warsaw Uprising
Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski (1893–1964), general
Władysław Tryliński (1878–1956), transportation engineer and inventor
Jerzy Waldorff (1910–1999), art critic and one of the benefactors of the Cemetery
Melchior Wańkowicz (1892–1974), writer
Henryk Wieniawski (1835–1870), composer
Kazimierz Wierzyński (1894–1969), poet and writer
Stanisław Wigura (1901–1932), aircraft designer and aviator
Stanisław Wojciechowski (1869–1953), president of Poland
Aleksander Zelwerowicz (1877–1955), actor and director, patron of the Warsaw Drama Academy
Franciszek Żwirko (1895–1932), aviator
Wojciech Żywny (1756–1842), first piano teacher of Fryderyk Chopin, composer.
Helena Morsztynkiewiczowa (1894 –1983), architect and urban planner