Powazki Cemetery

Powązki Cemetery is the oldest and most famous cemetery in Warsaw, Poland, which is situated in the western part of the city. It contains a mausoleum with memorials to many of the greats in Polish history including many interred since 1925 along the "Avenue of the Meritorious". It also a very large military section for the graves of those who fought and died for their country in the past 200 years including the large number of those involved in the ill-fated 1944 uprising against the Nazis during World War II.

Like many of the old European cemeteries, Powazki's tombstones were created by some of the most renowned Polish sculptors that depict the different styles of architecture and sculpture at various times in history.

November 1st is On "All Soul's Day" in Poland. In Warsaw, vigils are held not only in the Roman Catholic cemeteries, but in the Protestant, Muslim, Jewish and Orthodox cemeteries as well. At Powazki cemetery, all the graves are decorated with candles. The candelight image shown is that of the memorial for Krzysztof Kieslowski.

All Soul's Night - Powazki Cemetery

A few of the notables buried here are:

• Ignacy Dobrzynski, (1807-1867) composer
• Krzysztof Kieslowski, (1941-1996) film director
• Krzysztof Komeda, (1931-1969), jazz composer
• Witold Lutoslawski, composer
• Stefan Mazurkiewicz, co-founder of the Warsaw school of mathematics
• Stanislaw Moniuszko, composer
• Marian Rejewski, (1905-1980)- WW II hero: code breaker (Enigma)
• Wladyslaw Reymont, (1867-1925), Nobel Prize winning author
• Waclaw Sierpinski, (1882-1969) mathematician
• Stanislaw Sosabowski, general
• Henryk Wieniawski, composer
• Kazimierz Wierzynski, (1894-1969), poet and writer

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:

• Simon Ashkenazi, archaeologist,
• Mathias Bersohn, philanthropist,
• Adam Czerniakow, was the head of the Judenrat in the Warsaw Ghetto
• Maurycy Fajans, founder of the first steamboat line on the Vistula
• Jacob Dinezon (1852-1919), writer
• Esther Rachel Kaminska, actress
• Janusz Korczak (1878-1942), (symbolic grave), children's writer and educator
• Samuel Orgelbrand, publisher of the Universal Encyclopaedia,
• Isaac Loeb Peretz, writer
• Hipolit Wawelberg, founder of Warsaw Technical College,
• Ludwik Zamenhof, doctor and inventor of esperanto.
• Solomon Anski, writer (Solomon Zangwill Rappaport), author of "The Dibbuk"

See also: List of other famous cemeteries