Powązki Cemetery and Military Cemetery (Polish Cmentarz Powązkowski/Cmentarz Wojskowy) are the oldest and most famous cemetery in Warsaw, Poland, and are situated in the western part of the city. They contain a mausoleum with memorials to many of the greats in Polish history, including many interred since 1925 along the "Avenue of the Meritorious" (Aleja Zasłużonych, est. 1925). The Military Cemetery has also a very large military section for the graves of those who fought and died for their country since the early 19th century, including the large number of those involved in the ill-fated Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis during World War II, the Battle of Warsaw, and the September Campaign.

Details

Powązki is actually a necropolis, consisting of a whole complex of cemeteries. In 1790, most cemeteries in the Warsaw city centre were closed for sanitary reasons, and a new Catholic cemetery was created in the western suburb of Powązki. Soon afterwards, several other cemeteries were founded in the area: Jewish, Calvinist, Lutheran, Caucasian and Tatar. The Orthodox cemetery is located not far from the Powązki necropolis.

The latest addition to the complex was the "Military Cemetery," during the Communist Era known as the "Communal Cemetery." It was founded in 1912 as an annex to the Catholic cemetery, but after Poland regained independence in 1918, it became the state cemetery, where some of the most notable people of the period were buried, regardless of their faith. Like many of the old European cemeteries, Powązki's tombstone were created by some of the most renowned sculptors of the age, Polish and foreign. Some of the monuments are excellent examples of various styles in art and architecture.

On All Saints Day (November 1) and Zaduszki (November 2) 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, all the graves are decorated with candles.

A large part of the cemetery is occupied by graves of Polish soldiers who fell in the Warsaw Uprising. Most of the graves were exhumed between 1945 and 1953 from the streets of Warsaw. In many cases, the names of the soldiers remain unknown, and the graves are marked only by the Polish Red Cross identification number. Until the early 1950s, brothers-in-arms of many fallen soldiers organised exhumations of their colleagues on their own, and there are many quarters where soldiers of specific units are buried. Also in the cemetery are several mass graves of (mostly unknown) civilian victims of the German terror during World War II and of the Warsaw Uprising.

Notable people

A few of the notables buried here (Civil and Military Cemetery) are:

• Bolesław Bierut (1892-1956), communist dictator
• Wojciech Bogusławski, writer, actor, director
• Tadeusz Borowski (1922-1951), Polish writer, journalist, and Holocaust survivor.
• Ignacy Dobrzyński (1807-1867) composer.
• Jerzy Duszyński (1917-1978) actor.
• Wladyslaw Filipkowski (1892-1950), military commander.
• Pola Gojawiczyńska (1896-1963)
• Władysław Gomułka, communist leader
• Stefan Jaracz (1883-1945), actor
• Jacek Kaczmarski (1957-2004), poet and singer
• 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
• Krzysztof Komeda (1931-1969), jazz composer
• Ryszard Kukliński (1930-2001), Cold War master spy
• Jacek Kuroń (1934-2004), historian, dissident and one of the Solidarity leaders
• Tadeusz Łomnicki (1927-1992), actor
• Jozef Krzucki, chemist
• Witold Lutosławski, composer
• Witold Małcużyński (1914-1977), classical pianist
• Stefan Mazurkiewicz, co-founder of the Warsaw school of mathematics
• Stanisław Moniuszko, composer
• Antoni Osuchowski (1849-1928), philanthropist and national activist
• Witold Pilecki (1901-1948), freedom fighter
• Lech Pijanowski, film-maker and game designer
• Kazimierz Porębski (1872-1933), vice-admiral
• Bolesław Prus (1847-1912), journalist and novelist
• Kazimierz Pużak (1883-1950), died in the Communist prison, secretly buried in Powązki, Polish Socialist Party F.E.I. leader, a leader of the Polish Resistance
• Marian Rejewski (1905-1980), mathematician-cryptologist
• Władysław Reymont (1867-1925), Nobel Prize-winning novelist
• Leon Schiller, theater director and theoretician
• Irena Sendlerowa (1910-2008), head of Children's Section of the Żegota
• Wacław Sierpiński (1882-1969) mathematician
• Edward Rydz-Śmigły Marshal of Poland and Polish chief of state 1935-1939
• Stanisław Skalski (1915-1994), WWII fighter ace
• Andrzej Sołtan (1897-1959), physicist
• Stanisław Sosabowski (1892 - 1967), general
• Władysław Szpilman (1911-2000), pianist
• Karol Świerczewski, army general, Communist leader
• Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski (1893-1964), general
• Julian Tuwim (1894-1953), poet
• Jerzy Waldorff, art critic and one of the beneficiaries of the cemetery
• Henryk Wieniawski, composer
• Kazimierz Wierzyński (1894-1969), poet and writer
• Stanisław Wigura (1901-1932), aircraft designer and aviator
• Stanisław Wojciechowski, president of Poland
• Aleksander Zelwerowicz, actor and director, patron of the Warsaw Drama Academy
• Stefan Żeromski, writer
• Jan Zumbach (1915-1986), World War II fighter ace
• Franciszek Żwirko (1895-1932), aviator

The Jewish Cemetery, located on Okopowa Street next to the Protestant Cemetery and near the Powazki necropolis, was established between 1799 and 1806. Some of the prominent Jewish citizens buried here are:

• Solomon Anski, writer (Solomon Zangwill Rappaport), author of "The Dybbuk"
• Szymon Askenazy, archaeologist
• Mathias Bersohn, philanthropist
• Adam Czerniaków, head of Warsaw Ghetto Judenrat
• Maurycy Fajans, founder of the first steamboat line on the Vistula River
• Jacob Dinezon (1852-1919), writer
• Esther Rachel Kamińska (1870-1925), "mother of Yiddish Theater," mother of Ida Kamińska
• Janusz Korczak (1878-1942, cenotaph), children's writer and educator
• Samuel Orgelbrand, publisher of Universal Encyclopaedia
• Isaac Loeb Peretz, writer
• Hipolit Wawelberg, founder of Warsaw Technical College
• Ludwik Zamenhof, creator of Esperanto

See also

• List of famous cemeteries

References

Gallery

Image:Bolesław Prus tomb.PNG|Tomb of Bolesław Prus, Catholic CemeteryImage:Powazki Tuwim.JPG|Tomb of Julian TuwimImage:106 0665 t.jpg|Old PowązkiImage:Powazki wrzesien 2.JPG|Graves of Polish soldiers who fell during the 1939 invasion of PolandImage:Powazki wrzesien 3.JPG|1939 sectionImage:Powazki Bierut.JPG|Mausoleum of Bolesław Bierut - Military CemeteryImage:Powazki 1920.JPG|Graves of soldiers fallen during the 1920 Battle of Warsaw- Military Cemetery

Image:Powazki Szpilman.JPG|Grave of Władysław SzpilmanImage:Powazki Kuron.JPG|Tomb of Jacek Kuroń- Military CemeteryImage:Powazki Beck.JPG|Tombs of Józef Beck and Jan Jankowski- Military CemeteryImage:Powazki Czuma.JPG|Tomb of Gen. Walerian Czuma and his brotherImage:Female soldiers 1939.JPG|Graves of three female Polish soldiers who fell during the 1939 invasion of Poland.- Military Cemetery

Panoramas: Powązki Cemetery 1 Powązki Cemetery 2 Powązki Cemetery 3 Powązki Cemetery 4 Powązki Cemetery 5