Lychakivskiy Cemetery

Lychakivskiy Cemetery ( _pl. Cmentarz Łyczakowski; _uk. Личаківський цвинтар, translit. "Lychakivs’kyi tsvyntar") is a famous and historic cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine.

History

Since its creation in 1787, Łyczakowski Cemetery has been the main necropolis of the city's inteligentsia, middle and upper classes. Initially the cemetery was located on several hills in the borough of Łyczaków, following the imperial Austro-Hungarian edict ordering that all cemeteries be moved outside of the city limits. The original project was prepared by Karol Bauer, the head of the Lwów University botanical garden.

In mid-1850s the cemetery was expanded significantly by Tytus Tchórzewski, who created the present network of alleys and round-abouts. It then became the main city cemetery, and soon most other cemeteries were closed. The two largest that remained were the Yanivskiy Cemetery (in Polish "Janowski", with many working class graves) and the adjacent New Jewish Cemetery. Łyczakowski Cemetery was used by all Christian sects in the city: in addition to Roman Catholics, it also included Eastern Rite Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox.

In 1925 the ashes of one of the unknown defenders of Lwów were transferred to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw. Since 1999 there is also a monument to the Sich Riflemen located just outside the mausoleum of Polish defenders of the city in 1918.

After World War II the city was annexed by the Soviet Union to the Ukrainian SSR and the majority of the surviving pre-war inhabitants of the city were expelled to former German areas annexed to Poland. This started a period of devastation of historical monuments located at the cemetery. Up to 1971 many of the sculptures were destroyed; the cemetery of Lwów Eagles was completely destroyed and turned into a truck depot. However, in 1975 the cemetery was declared a historical monument and the degradation ended. Since late 1980's the cemetery has seen constant rebuilding and refurbishment and continues to be one of the principal tourist attractions of Lwów.

In late 2006 the city administration announced the future transference of the tombs of Stepan Bandera, Yevhen Konovalets, Andriy Melnyk and other key leaders of OUN/UPA to a new area of the cemetery specifically dedicated to Ukrainian national liberation struggle. [http://en.for-ua.com/news/2006/10/25/171101.html]

Notable people

Since the city for centuries used to be a centre of Polish culture, there are numerous famous Poles buried there. Among them are:

* Roman Abraham, general
* Stefan Banach, mathematician
* Władysław Bełza, writer
* Benedykt Dybowski, soldier, adventurer, ethnologist and biologist
* Mieczysław Garsztka, polish aviator
* Mieczysław Gębarowicz, historian
* Franciszek Ksawery Godebski, historian
* Artur Grottger, artist
* Zygmunt Gorgolewski, architect, author of the Lwów Opera
* Seweryn Goszczyński, poet
* Jan Nepomucen Kamiński, founder of the first theatre in Lwów
* Wojciech Kętrzyński, historian and name-sake of the city of Kętrzyn
* Maria Konopnicka, writer
* Julian Konstanty Ordon, officer
* Karol Szajnocha, historian
* Gabriela Zapolska, writer

Among the notable Ukrainians buried there are:

* Vasyl Barvinsky, impressionist composer
* Ivan Franko, poet and reformer of the Ukrainian language
* Volodymyr Ivasyuk, composer
* Stanislav Ludkevych, composer
* Oleksandr Tysowskyj (alternately Alexander Tysovsky), founder of Ukrainian Scouting
* Mikhail Kobrin, theologian
* Markiyan Shashkevych, poet
* Anatole Vakhnianyn, composer and leading cultural figure
* Jacques Hnizdovsky, painter, printmaker, sculptor, bookplate designer and illustrator of numerous books, both in Ukrainian and English

There are also numerous parts of the cemetery in which veterans of most wars of 19th and 20th centuries are buried, including the quarters of veterans of:
* November Uprising
* January Uprising
* World War I
* Lwów Eagles (Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów, reopened on 24 June 2005)
* Polish-Ukrainian War
* Polish-Bolshevik War
* Polish Defensive War
* World War II
* Victims of the NKVD

Gallery

External links

* [http://www.lwow.home.pl/lycz.html Detailed history of the Cemetery] pl icon
* [http://www.lwow.home.pl/lfot.html Pictures of the Cemetery] pl icon
* [http://www.lwow.home.pl/lwow2003/lyczakow/wrzesien2003.html More pictures of the Cemetery] (captions in Polish)
* [http://www.lwow.home.pl/lwow2002/o1.html Pictures of Defenders of Lwów Cemetery] pl icon
* Lychakivskiy Cemetery on [http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/lviv/CityMap/CM59.HTM city plan: F-9] ; Inter-war [http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/lviv/LVIVPLAN11.HTML cemetery list, p. 23,] "Plan Lwowa," W. Horbay, 1938 (in Polish; reprinted Wrocław, 1986).