The Radziwiłł Mausoleum
in Nesvizh.
Research

In 1859, Adam Honory Kirkor in his book Przechadzki po Wilnie i jego okolicach (Strolls in Vilnius and its Surroundings) described the view he saw in the cellars of the Church of the Holy Spirit (Dominican) as follows: “The spacious and large church cellars are still full of the people’s remains. Many years ago I visited these cellars and saw the bodies and even the clothes that were untouched by time and rotting […]. Attention was drawn by several hundred corpses placed close to each other in a row along one wall, and adjacent to them there was a second row of corpses. No one could explain what all that should mean […].”¹Jan Śliwin, Przechadzki po Wilnie i jego okolicach, Wilno: Drukarnia A. Marcinowskiego, 1856, p. 65-66. Count Eustachy Tyszkiewicz, an initiator of archaeological science in Lithuania, also visited the place in 1858²Dario Piombino-Mascali, et al., “The Lithuanian Mummy Project: A Historical Introduction”, Lietuvos archeologija, 2015, vol. 41, p. 131-142.. The Ruler of Poland and Lithuania Alexander Jagiellon (1461-1506) was believed to have been buried there³Jan Śliwin, op. cit., p. 29.. Kirkor took interest  in royal burials in the Vilnius Cathedral too and Tyszkiewicz was concerned about the perpetuation of the memory of Władysław IV Vasa and Vytautas the Great⁴Adam Honory Kirkor, Groby wielkoksiążęce i królewskie w Wilnie, Warszawa: Druk Józefa Ungra, 1882; Jan Śliwin, op. cit., p. 26-29. For more see Vytautas Urbanavičius, Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės valdovų ir didikų panteonas Vilniuje, Vilnius: Nacionalinis muziejus Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės valdovų rūmai, 2018, p. 79.. Besides, Tyszkiewicz wrote an amply illustrated book about his family burials45⁵Eustachy Tyszkiewicz, Groby rodziny Tyszkiewiczów, Warszawa: Druk Jana Jaworskiego, 1873.. Those two were not the only ones interested in this matter. In the Romanticism period the old cemeteries, crypts and tombstones attracted attention of the lovers of the past⁶Marija Matušakaitė, Išėjusiems atminti. Laidosena ir kapų ženklinimas LDK, Vilnius: Vilniaus dailės akademijos leidykla, 2009, p. 10-11.. The places of eternal rest of famous people, as well as unusual crypts renown for a number of burials, surrounded by legends, aroused people’s curiosity. However, the beginning of the archaeological investigations of churches of Lithuania and the crypts therein is considered to be 1931-1932 when royal burials were discovered (See more: Lithuania. Interwar) in the Vilnius Cathedral after the flood of the Neris River⁷Albinas Kuncevičius, “Lietuvos viduramžių archeologiniai tyrimai (1)”, Istorija, 2002, vol. 53, p. 11.. In the long run, the “elementary” curiosity of the lovers of the past turned into understanding of the importance of burial research and the dilemmas related to their protection.

Justina Poškienė