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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Tuesday, 19.03.2024, 10:22

Remains of 1863-64 uprising participants buried in Vilnius

BC, Vilnius, 22.11.2019.Print version

The remains of two commanders – Zygmunt Sierakowski (known in Lithuania as Zigmantas Sierakauskas) and Konstanty Kalinowski (Konstantinas Kalinauskas) – and 18 other participants of the 1863-1864 uprising against Tsarist rule were buried in a state funeral in Vilnius on Friday, writes LETA/BNS. 


Their coffins were brought to the renovated Chapel of the Old Rasos Cemetery following a Holy Mass at Vilnius Cathedral and a solemn funeral procession along the capital's streets. 


Those who took part in the procession included Presidents Gitanas Nauseda of Lithuania and Andrzej Duda of Poland as well as Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Petrishenko, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Dmytro Kuleba, and Lithuanian clergymen of different denominations. 


The coffins were escorted by Lithuanian and Polish honor guards, and a crowd of Lithuanians, Poles and Belarusians waving their national flags. 


At the cemetery, Lithuanian and Polish soldiers fired gun salutes to pay their respects to the fighters. 


The chapel will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. through Sunday. The coffins will be later interred in crypts within the chapel.  


The commanders of the 1863-1864 uprising against Tsarist rule in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were executed in the Lithuanian capital's Lukiskes Square in 1864. Their remains, along with those of 18 other insurgents, were unearthed during Gediminas Hill reinforcement works in 2017.





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