The Radziwiłł Mausoleum
in Nesvizh.
Research

The Corpus Christi Church in Nesvizh was built on the initiative of the Great Lithuanian Marshal, Voivode of Trakai Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł Sierotka (1549-1616). Even though there were enough funds for the construction, the beginning was complicated. In 1582, Mikołaj Krzysztof appealed to the General of the Jesuits with a request to found a college in Nesvizh. In the same year the General sent two Jesuits to Nesvizh to survey the site for the construction of the college. They found it unsuitable and even described Nesvizh itself as a “hellhole”. However, Radziwiłł did not give in, and in 1584 he finally obtained the General’s approval to build the Jesuit College in Nesvizh. The church and the college were designed by the Italian architect Jesuit Giovanni Maria Bernardoni. In September 1587, Mikołaj Krzysztof’s younger brother Cardinal Jerzy Radziwiłł consecrated the corner-stone of the church and almost six years later, when the construction was almost finished, the first Mass was celebrated there. The church was consecrated in 1601.¹Tadeusz Bernatowicz, Miles Christianus et Peregrinus: fundacje Mikołaja Radziwiłła “Sierotki” w ordynacji nieświeskiej (series Historia Artium. Prace Instytutu Historii Sztuki Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, vol. 1), Warszawa: Neriton, 1998, p. 45.

Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł distinguished himself for building churches²For more see Mindaugas Paknys, Mecenatystės reiškinys XVII a. LDK: bažnytinės architektūros užsakymai, Vilnius: Vilniaus dailės akademijos leidykla, 2003, pp. 186-187.; however, the construction of the Corpus Christi Church in Nesvizh was not just his ordinary foundation. According to Tadeusz Bernatowicz, who studied Radziwiłł’s funding activities, this sanctuary was the most important church in the Radziwiłłs’ ordynacja and it had to serve as a symbol³Tadeusz Bernatowicz, op. cit., p. 53. of the family’s piety and glory. Moreover, it was one of the first copies of the main Jesuit church – the Church of Il Gesù in Rome – and it was also the first Baroque building in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania⁴Andrzej Betlej, “Architecture of Jesuit Churches in the Former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1564-1773”, Journal of Jesuit Studies, 2018, vol. 5, no. 1, p. 358; Lietuvos architektūros istorija, vol. 2: Nuo XVII a. pradžios iki XIX a. vidurio, Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidykla, 1994, p. 47; Tadeusz Bernatowicz, op. cit., p. 49.. The church served as a place of eternal rest, thus, several separate burial crypts, accessible through separate entrances, were built underneath it:

• (1) the Holy Cross Chapel of the Radziwiłł family was built at the founder’s request in the northern part of the transept of the church with a ducal crypt; the founder himself was laid to rest there;
• (2) the crypt of the family of Andrzej Skorulski, the courtier and Mikołaj Krzysztof’s brother-in-arms, was built under Saint Andrew’s chapel;
• the Corpus Christi Church was, first and foremost, a Jesuit church; therefore (3) the crypt of the monks was built underneath the presbytery, and (4) the crypt of the deceased College students was constructed underneath the Blessed Virgin Mary Chapel situated in the southern part of the transept;
• as the church was also a parish church, (5) the crypt for its parishioners, most probably for the noble ones, was built underneath the Saint Peter Chapel⁵Tadeusz Bernatowicz, op. cit., pp. 52-53..

Hence, this church did not at once become a burial place of the house of Radziwiłł and this layout of the crypts remained unaltered for more than 150 years.

In the middle of the 18th century the crypts were rearranged on the initiative of the then Ordynat of Nesvizh Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł Rybeńko (1702-1762). Individual crypts were joined together to form a large integrated space, which could be entered through a single entrance on the side of the Holz Cross Chapel altar, the interior was also modified. New epitaphs carved by the sculptor Antoni Zaleski were fastened to the crypt walls. These plates were decorated with colourfully painted cartouches containing the heraldic signs of the Radziwiłłs (transcripts of crypt epitaphs, see: Historical research report. 2017 (Martynas Jakulis)). The reconstruction was completed in 1749. On 17 June, Michał Kazimierz made the following entry in his diary: “a Réquiem Mass was celebrated and the bodies of all dukes my ancestors, parents and benefactors were moved to the new crypt, where they could rest in peace with God.”⁶[The diary of Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł Rybeńko (1719-1761; a copy)], Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych. Archiwum Warszawskie Radziwiłłów, dz. VI, nr. II-80a, p. 1663. His and his wife Urszula Franciszka’s (1705-1753) deeds were immortalized on one of the commemorative plaques in the crypt with the words of Tacitus, the famous Roman historian: “Let us make this concession to the memory of the nobly born: that, as in the last rites they are distinguished from the vulgar dead, so, when history records their end, each shall receive and keep his special mention.”⁷Tacitus, Annals: Books 13-16, (series Loeb Classical Library, vol. 322), translated by John Jackson, Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press, 1937, p. 361. These words clearly reveal the Radziwiłłs’ attitude to the family’s crypt: their burial place had to suit the privileged status of the individuals and ensure the lasting remembrance of the dead and living family members. Michał Kazimierz’s desire to make the crypt more than just a burial place is testified to by the privilege granted by Pope Benedict XVI in 1750, which allowed Requiem Masses to be celebrated at the altar in the crypt. Since then, the underground of the church has been used only to bury the members of the Radziwiłł family (See: List). The remains of only two people who are not directly related to the family rest there: the remains of Andrzej Skorulski (1554-1637) who accompanied Mikołaj Krzysztof on his journey to the Holy Land, and Michał Rzewuski (1759-1760), Michał Kazimierz’s grandchild.

The form and purpose that the crypt acquired during the mid-18th century reconstruction have remained in essence unchanged up to the present day. Relics of the earlier centuries have survived too; for example, stone slabs with metal handles and inscriptions (which are hardly legible today) that covered the old entrances to the crypts.

Martynas Jakulis