My Traveling Joys: Powązki Cemetery

Monday, November 3, 2014

Pretty Photos of All Saints’ Day at Powązki in Warsaw

11/03/2014 01:30:00 AM by Joy2 comments

Thousands of flickering candles adorned the stone graves at Powązki Cemetery (Cmentarz Powązkowski) on Saturday night in Warsaw.

For the first time, we took part in the All Saints’ Day (Wszystkich Świętych in Polish) celebrations on November 1^st. We joined thousands of Poles as they flocked to the local cemeteries to remember and honor their deceased family members and friends by leaving flowers and candles on their graves.

We visited Powązki Cemetery, since it’s a short walk from our apartment, with another couple and their two children. Before we entered, we bought several glass, lantern-like candles that we planned to place on bare graves so the deceased wouldn’t feel “lonely” as we told the kids. My husband also wanted to light a candle in honor of his great-aunt who recently died.

This historic cemetery looked absolutely beautiful! We wandered through row after row of decorated graves and tombstones, just taking in the scenery and witnessing this Polish tradition in person. I’ve never seen anything like this before except perhaps the Warsaw Uprising anniversary events I’ve partaken in since we’ve lived here.

I took many photos, but the daylight soon faded, which made it more difficult. However, the oncoming of dusk made the candles stand out more as we walked through Powązki.

Hope you enjoy my photos of our first All Saints’ Day in Poland!

Have you ever witnessed All Saints’ Day celebrations in your own country or while traveling?

My husband lit a candle on the grave of Violetta Villas, a Belgian-born Polish and international cabaret star, singer, actress, composer and songwriter, who died at age 73 in 2011. During her long career, she recorded almost 300 songs in 10 languages and starred in six films.

Another popular grave was of Gustaw Holoubek, a well-known Polish actor, director, member of the Polish Sejm and a senator in the Polish Parliament. He died in 2008 at the age of 85. Holoubek also survived being a prisoner of war during the Nazi German Occupation of Poland and went on to have a long, successful career in the arts and local politics.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

All Saints’ Day at Powązki: Warsaw’s Oldest Cemetery

11/01/2014 05:00:00 AM by Joy4 comments

November 1^st is a special holiday here in Poland, known as All Saints’ Day in most Catholic countries, or Wszystkich Świętych in Polish.

Today, Poles will flock to the cemeteries to remember and honor their deceased family members and friends by leaving flowers and candles on their graves. Later this afternoon, we plan to visit the Cmentarz Powązkowski, also known as Stare Powązki, a historic cemetery dating back to 1790, located in the Wola district of Warsaw. Last year, we missed this holiday because we were in Berlin for the long weekend.

Apparently, the Polish cemeteries, decorated with hundreds of flickering candles and flowers, will really be a sight to behold today. Everyone will be there to celebrate and pray over their deceased loved ones. Volunteers also help to make sure that no grave is left without a candle. I think that’s a nice touch because I’ve seen so many graves in America that look abandoned.

Last year, we visited Powązki Cemetery a few days before All Saints’ Day as part of a special tour to learn more about its history. Dozens of family members were already working on cleaning up leaves and other debris around many of the tombs.

The cemetery is full of ornate, moss-covered tombstones that were created by some of the most renowned sculptors – both Polish and foreign. Between 700,000 to 1.5 million people are buried here.

During World War II, the cemetery served as a shelter for the people and Resistance fighters. Then, during the Soviet occupation, this was the only place where Polish characters were used and the Polish language was spoken in public. The cemetery is full of history.

During the tour, we learned the Powązki Cemetery is the final resting place of many famous historical figures in Polish history, including those interred along the “Avenue of Notables” (Aleja Zasłużonych) established in 1925.

For example, the ancestors of the English and Spanish royal family were descended from Poland. The Battenberg family was a morganatic branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt, rulers of the Grand Duchy of Hesse in Germany. The first member was Julia Hauke, who came from the Warsaw area, and is buried with her husband at Powazki. She is reportedly the great-, great-, grandmother of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge.

Other “female angels” mentioned on the tour were:

Izabella Moszczeńska-Rzepecka, a Polish writer and suffragist.

Tekla Bądarzewska-Baranowska, a well-known Polish composer and pianist from the late 1800s.

Marie Curie-Sklodowska, a Nobel-prize winner in chemistry and physics.

As you can see from these photos, the Powązki Cemetery is an interesting place to explore and photograph. I cannot wait to see what it looks like tonight for All Saints’ Day.