Zabytkowe cmentarze na Żmudzi - polskie ślady przeszłości dwóch narodów

ENOld necropolises of Samogitia (Pol. Żmudź, a region in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania), thanks to their historical and civilizational uniformity, form a consistent cultural space, and can therefore be treated as a single set of cultural monuments. They are an integral part of the common heritage of two nations, Lithuania and Poland, which by means of treaties extending over many centuries created, first, by means of the Treaty of Lublin (1569), the Commonwealth of Two Nations, and subsequently, through the Constitution of May 3rd 1791, a single state, which lasted, at least de facto if not de jure, even through the years of partitions (1795-1918). In some of these cemeteries, the majority of tombstones carry Polish inscriptions; in others, Polish inscriptions are common, and in some, only a few Polish markers among the prevalent Lithuanian ones. Not all such markers represent high aesthetic values, yet, even if more representative of craft than of sepulchral art, they are a physical trace of the material and spiritual culture of bygone generations in those areas, who lived under the motto gente lituanas natione polonus (Lithuanian people, Polish nation). [...] This presentation covers such details as: repartition of cemeteries in Samogitian territories; locations of the cemeteries; characteristics and descriptions of burial places: churchyard cemeteries, parish cemeteries, manor house cemeteries, gravestone tablets and church crypts; names, occupational and social status of the deceased, linguistic specifics and "poetical" nature of gravestone inscriptions; typology of tombstones, their age, possible artistic value, creators, materials, style oflettering; condition of cemeteries and graves, pointing out of essential conservation efforts. [...].