The Radziwiłł Mausoleum
in Nesvizh.
Research

Investigations of churches and crypts became more intense in Lithuania after the restoration of its independence (1990). In the 1990s, investigations of the following churches were carried out: the Church of St. Francis and St. Bernard in Vilnius (Bernardine), the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Franciscan) in Vilnius, St. George the Martyr Church in Kaunas, the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Simnas and others. Most often archeological and anthropological investigations were conducted. Not only were more intensive investigations undertaken at that time but also crypts were maintained and managed to adapt them to being visited. Restoration works of sarcophagi were started. In the decades that followed the vaults in the Church of St. Lawrence in Videniškiai (the Giedroyć family mausoleum), the Church of St. George in Veisėjai (where Tadeusz Ogiński and his wife Maria Ogiński were buried), the Church of St. Jacob the Apostle in Kurtuvėnai, the Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Trakai, the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Varniai (where Semogitian bishops were buried), the Tyszkiewicz family chapel in Kretinga were investigated. However, this is not a complete list (See more: Lithuania. Exposition Experiences).

Maintenance and management work on the Radziwiłł crypt located in Kėdainiai Evangelical Reformed Church23, one of the oldest and largest Protestant temples in the former Republic of the Two Nations, started in 1990 and lasted until 2001 (about 12 years) when the last sarcophagi were returned to the crypt. This is the first burial crypt in Lithuania that has been put in order. The crypt houses Renaissance and Baroque style sarcophagi for Voivodes of Vilnius, Grand Hetmans of Lithuania Krzysztof Radziwiłł Piorun (1547-1603) and Janusz Radziwiłł (1612-1655), and four small tin sarcophagi for the children of Krzysztof Młodszy and Anna Kiszka: Mikołaj (1610-1611), Jerzy (1616-1617), Stefan (1624-1624) and Elżbieta (1622-1626)¹For more about the sarcophagi see Rūta Vitkauskienė, “Radvilų alaviniai sarkofagai Kėdainių Evangelikų Reformatų bažnyčioje”, Istorija ir elitinės kultūros teigtys (series Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis. Dailė, vol. 14), compiled by Vidmantas Jankauskas, Vilnius: Vilniaus dailės akademijos leidykla, 1998, p. 68-91. who died in their childhood. Restoration work on five sarcophagi of the Chodkiewicz family crypt beneath the presbytery of the Church of the Lord’s Revelation to Virgin Mary in Kretinga567 lasted for nearly 10 years (2001-2010). The sarcophagi of Jan Kazimierz Chodkiewicz (1616-1660), Hieronim Krzysztof Chodkiewicz (died in 1613), Zofia Mielecka Chodkiewicz (1567-1619), Krystyna Maria Chodkiewicz-Farensbach (died in 1619) and Karol Jurkowski (1799-1800) were put in order. The sarcophagi were restored by Gintaras Kazlauskas. True, in the aforementioned cases, the focus was on preserving the sarcophagi as artistic assets leaving aside complex investigations of these burials²Rugilė Žostautaitė, Mumijos Lietuvoje: tyrimai, apsauga ir eksponavimas: [the master thesis; preserved at the Faculty of History of Vilnius University], 2016, p. 31.. Later, attention was also directed to the sarcophagi of other noble families, such as the Ogiński family in Veisiejai, the Tyszkiewicz family in Trakai, Vokė and Kretinga.

In the 21st century more complex and diverse methods were employed to investigate the crypts. One of the most interesting projects is the investigation of the remains of Queen and Duchess Barbara Radziwiłł (c.1522-1551, buried in the Vilnius Cathedral). In 2001, to assess the state of the remains, her coffin was opened. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the investigations of the remains were conducted; the 1931 research data (See more: Lithuania. Interwar) were verified and made more exact. At the same time a documentary face reconstruction was undertaken (by the archeologist, plastic reconstruction specialist Vytautas Urbanavičius)³Gintautas Česnys, Rimantas Jankauskas, Vytautas Urbanavičius, “Queen Barbora Radvilaitė: Review of Remains and Reconstruction of Documentary Portrait”, Acta Medica Lituanica, 2001, vol. 8, p. 18-24; Vytautas Urbanavičius, Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės valdovų ir didikų panteonas Vilniuje, Vilnius: Nacionalinis muziejus Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės valdovų rūmai, 2018, p. 101. For more Dalius Avižinis, “Skulptūra Barbora Radvilaitė”, Valdovų rūmų muziejus, [accessed 07.10.2019], [electronic], available at: www.valdovurumai.lt/lankytojams/savaites-eksponatas/skulptura-barbora-radvilaite.. With the help of different methods attempts have been made for several decades to discover the remains of Vytautas the Great (c. 1350-1430) in the Vilnius Cathedral: unfortunately, thus far the efforts have come to nothing⁴Vytautas Urbanavičius, op. cit., p. 157-162..

The international multidisciplinary scientific and archeological project10111213 The Lithuanian Mummy Marathon (2011-2015) gave a great impetus to the studies of the remains, especially the mummified ones. The project was initiated by journalist Daumantas Liekis, and the investigation was conducted by a team of scientists led by the anthropologist of Vilnius University Rimantas Jankauskas, the mummy researcher Dario Piombino-Mascali from the University of Pisa (Italy) and other specialists. In implementing the project, such laboratory methods as X-ray, computer tomography, nuclear magnetic resonance etc., which have never been used for investigations of mummies in Lithuania before, were employed. The mummies brought to Lithuania from abroad or discovered in the crypts of Lithuanian churches were investigated. The results of the project have been presented in international scientific and popular science publications, about 50 reports have been published online⁵For example, National Geography; HOMO – Journal of Comparative Human Biology; Egyptian Bioarchaeology: Humans, Animals, and the Environment and others..

In 2005, 2009 and 2011 the focus again was turned to the Church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius (interest in the burials in its vaults has taken place 19th century (Lithuania. In the period of Romanticism; Lithuania. Interwar; Lithuania. The Soviet Period)). In 2011, in implementing the above mentioned project The Lithuanian Mummy Marathon, 23 mummies discovered in the vaults of the church were studied. The ones, which were in the best condition, were described in detail; complete computed tomography scan was taken of seven of them. The investigations cast some light on the lifestyle, physiology and diseases of the elite of Vilnius of the 18th century⁶Rimantas Jankauskas, Dario Piombino-Mascali, “The Lithuanian Mummy Project: Bioanthropological and Paleopathological Investigation of the Human Remains Found in the Holy Spirit Dominican Church, Vilnius”, Paleopathology Newsletter, 2012, p. 12, 159..

Another interesting project was investigations of the burials in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Vilnius1516 (2015-2016; the investigations were conducted by the archeologist of the Faculty of History of Vilnius University Albinas Kuncevičius; the crypt situated in front of the high altar was investigated)⁷Albinas Kuncevičius, et al., “Vilniaus bazilijonų Švč. Trejybės bažnyčios unitų karstų tyrimai”, Archeologiniai tyrinėjimai Lietuvoje 2015 metais, Vilnius: Lietuvos archeologijos draugija, 2016, p. 237-247.. The investigations were noted for complex access – not only archaeologists, anthropologists but also historians and restorers took part in the project. The following was discovered in the crypt: 53 coffins containing the remains and individual bones belonging to 60 people, 18 coffins containing the remains, and 2 burials without coffins beneath the floor of the crypt (buried 1m deep). Five mummies and partial mummifications of 13 remains were discovered among them. Fourteen coffins (dating back to 1717-1788) had inscriptions with the names and surnames of the diseased. The burial items, inscriptions and investigations helped to determine that most of the buried were Basillian monks (of course, individual bones piled in the crypt might have belonged not only to the monks but also to other people who were buried around the church, for example, it is known that German soldiers were buried there during the Second World War⁸See Kęstutis Katalynas, Manvydas Vitkūnas, “Karių kapai Vilniuje, rasti archeologinių tyrimų metu”, Karo archyvas, 2013, vol. 28, p. 364-366.). What started as an investigation of the remains and crypt management works has grown into a joint project of nineteen Lithuanian and Ukrainian scientists and resulted in a monograph⁹Vadimas Adurovas, et al., Kultūrų kryžkelė. Vilniaus Švč. Trejybės šventovė ir vienuolynas, Vilnius: Vilniaus universiteto leidykla, 2017..

However, the most significant project from the scientific and public point of view was investigations of the former Evangelical Reformed Church (16th-17th century) in Dubingiai Castle site. With the help of interdisciplinary methods and digital technologies, members of the noble Radzwiłł family were “saved” from oblivion. It was known that there used to be three churches in the castle site. The first wooden Catholic Church was founded by Grand Duke Vytautas, the second one – the wooden Evangelical Reformed church – was erected on the initiative of Mikołaj Radziwiłł Rudy (1512-1584), and the third church – the masonry Evangelical Reformed Church was built on the initiative of Janusz Radziwiłł. It is believed that in 1577-1588 Mikołaj Rudy and Elizabeth Szydlowiecka (1533-1562), a wife of Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł Czarny were buried in the second church. The benefactor of the third church Janusz was buried there before the construction of the church had been completed. In 1627, the new church was supposed to be completed and the remains of Mikołaj Rudy and Elizabeth had to be moved to the crypt underneath the site of the church altar¹⁰Albinas Kuncevičius, et al., Radvilų tėvonija Dubingiuose, Vilnius: Vilniaus dailės akademija, 2009, p. 15, 24-26..

In 2004, the burial was discovered in the central part of the church under the Lord’s Table. It was a box (100 x 150 cm) containing neatly arranged bones (the investigation was conducted by archaeologists Albinas Kuncevičius and Rimvydas Laužikas). In 2004-2007, having conducted a thorough examination of these bones and historical circumstances, it was stated that the remains of the members of the Radziwiłł family and their reburial place had been discovered. Different methods were employed to identify the remains, including anthropological, historical, artistic investigations, DNA and chemical analyses, comparisons of the skulls and portraits. It is argued that they are the remains of Elizabeth Szydłowiecka Radziwiłł, Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł Czarny (1515-1565), Anna Sobkówna Radziwiłł (died in 1578), Mikołaj Radziwiłł Rudy and Janusz Radziwiłł. According to researchers, though it is impossible to confirm one hundred per cent the identities of the remains discovered, this does not downplay the significance of the investigation¹¹Ibid., p. 47-91..

Justina Poškienė