Rasos Cemetery
Rasos Cemetery (Lithuanian: Rasų kapinės, Polish: Cmentarz na Rossie) is an old cemetery in city of Vilnius (Polish: Wilno) - the present capital of Lithuania. Since Vilnius used to be the center of Polish-Lithuanian culture, there are a lot of famous people, and the heart of Józef Piłsudski, buried there.
History
Founded in 1769 by Bazyli Miller, the mayor of Wilno, in the place of ancient pagan temple and a small plague necropoly. He was also the first person to be buried there. It received the name after the surrounding borough of Rossa. In 1801 a chapel and a belltower were built. After 1844 the cemetery received a new, neo-gothic shrine. It was built by Józef Bohdanowicz, a local priest, and Jan Waszkiewicz, professor at the Academy of Wilno. In 1920 a small military cemetery was built near the entrance for the soldiers who died in the city during the Polish-Bolshevik War. It was rebuilt in 1935-1936 by Wojciech Jastrzębowski, who also made a project of Piłsudski's tombstone.
Until September 18, 1939, when the Red Army entered the city, a honorary guard of three soldiers stood there at all times. Three unknown soldiers who refused to give up their arms to the Soviets in 1939 were shot on the spot and are now buried next to Marshall Piłsudski. Part of the cemetery contains graves of Polish Home Army soldiers, who fell during the Wilno Uprising. Their graves, demolished after the war, were rebuilt by the Polish state in 1993.
After the war most of the inhabitants of the city were expelled and the cemetery was renamed to a Lithuanian name of Rasų cemetery, also spelt as Rasos cemetery. The whole necropoly was to be destroyed in the 1980s as the Soviet authorities planned a major motorway to be built directly through the cemetery. Fortunately, a press campaign led by Polish-language "Czerwony Sztandar" (Red Banner) newspaper and economical difficulties halted the destruction.
Notable people
Rossa is a burial place for many famous Poles. Among them are:
- Joachim Lelewel, historian, professor of the University of Wilno
- Władysław Syrokomla, writer
- count Eustachy Tyszkiewicz (1814-1873), historian, archaeologist
- Czesław Jankowski (1857-1929), poet
- Euzebiusz Słowacki, father of Polish poet Juliusz Słowacki
- Janina Burchardówna (1883-1924), journalist, teacher and freedom-fighter
- Wacław Dziewulski (1882-1938), phisycian, professor of the Vilnius University
- Antonina Fiszer (1824-1840), actress
- Jan O'Connor (1760-1802), medic, professor of the University of Wilno
- Adam Piłsudski (1869-1935), a long-time president of Wilno
- Władysław Horodyjski (d. 1920), philosopher, professor of the University of Wilno
- Franciszek Smuglewicz (1745-1807), painter, professor of the University of Wilno
- Józef Montwiłł, humanist and sponsor of countless hospitals, orphanages and museums
- Adam Jocher (1791-1860), founder of the first public library in Wilno
- Juliusz Kłos (1881-1933), architect, author of the guidebook to Vilnius.
- Józef Łukaszewicz (1863-1928), professor of the University of Wilno, revolutionist and long-time prisoner of czarist prison in Shlisselburg
- Two brothers, mother, first wife and heart of Józef Piłsudski, Polish statesman
- Antoni Wiwulski (1877-1919), architect and sculptor
- Bronisław Wróblewski (1888-1941), lawyer
- Jędrzej Śniadecki, (1768-1838), writer, medic, chemist and biologist
There is also a mass grave of Poles kidnapped in Vilnius by the Bolsheviks in 1919 and shot in Daugavpils.
At the Rossa cemetery there are also graves of famous Belarusians and Lithuanians, among them:
- Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, painter and composer
- Andriey Levicki, writer
- Jonas Basanavičius, doctor, scientist, public man
- Kazys Boruta, writer
- Petras Cvirka, writer
- Povilas Višinskis, book spreader, writer
- Antanas Vileišis, doctor, public man
