The Radziwiłł Mausoleum
in Nesvizh.
Research

The Corpus Christi Church in Nesvizh became a mausoleum of the Nesvizh-Olyka line of the Radziwiłł family. The founder of the church, Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł Sierotka (1549-1616) was also buried in the crypt of the church. He wrote in his will the following: “[And] the exequies of my sinful body [as I] desire and request, must be held in the crypt of the Corpus Christi Church in Nesvizh, which is situated under the Holy Cross Chapel of the Jesuit church, which I, thank God, have been preparing for myself and my offspring throughout my life and where my wife and two sons – Mikołaj and Krzysztof – have already been buried; no matter where I am going to die, […] please bring my remains to Nesvizh.”¹[The will of Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł Sierotka (1612)], Archiwum Domu Radziwiłłów (listy ks. M. K. Radziwiłła Sierotki, Jana Zamoyskiego, Lwa Sapiehy) (series Scriptores Rerum Polonicarum, vol. VIII), Kraków, 1885, p. 72. In 1616, his wish was granted. Mikołaj Krzysztof, however, was not the first to have been buried in the crypt. As early as 1616, there were already three members of the house of Radziwiłł laid to rest in the crypt: the founder’s wife Elżbieta (Halszka) Eufemia (1569-1596), as well as their their sons – Mikołaj, who died in his early childhood (1588), and Krzysztof Mikołaj (1590-1607) who died in Bologna, but through the endeavours of the family was brought to his native Nesvizh²[The will of Elżbieta Eufemia Wiśniowiecka Radziwiłł (1594)], Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych (hereinafter referred to as AGAD). Archiwum Warszawskie Radziwiłłów (hereinafter referred to as AR), dz. XI, nr. 85, p. 118; [The will of Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł (1612)], op. cit., p. 72; [Description of the disease and death of Krzysztof Mikołaj Radziwiłł (1607)], AGAD. AR, dz. XI, nr. 95.. Four separate tombstones that survive to this day were erected over the grave in the Holy Cross Chapel³The Holy Cross Chapel is situated in the northern part of the transept of the Corpus Christi Church (to the left of the main altar of the church).: a tombstone for the founder was built on the right side of the chapel altar depicting him dressed in pilgrim clothes and kneeling piously with a rosary in his hands; a tombstone with the image of Mikołaj Krzysztof’s wife, Elżbieta Eufemia, was placed on the left, and adjacent to it there were tombstones for their children.

The significance of the family’s mausoleum is testified to by the wills drawn up by Mikołaj Krzysztof’s other sons. Albrycht Władysław Radziwiłł (1589-1636) wrote the following in his will: “Hereby I request the noble dukes, my brothers to burry my sinful body in accordance with the rites of the Roman Catholic church without secular pomp in the Jesuit Church in Nesvizh where the bodies of our noble parents rest in peace.”⁴[The will of Albrecht Władysław Radziwiłł (1636)], AGAD. AR, dz. XI, nr. 92, p. 64. Aleksander Ludwik (1594-1654) who died in Bologna like his brother Krzysztof Mikołaj, also expressed the wish to be buried next to his parents in Nesvizh⁵[The will of Aleksander Ludwik Radziwiłł (1654)], AGAD. AR, dz. XI, nr. 99, p. 163.. Seven months after his death, he was buried in the Corpus Christi Church. Similar requests were made in the wills of later generations of the Radziwiłł family of the Nesvizh-Olyka line. In addition, the Ordynats of Kleck were also buried there – their sarcophagi were placed in a separate row.

The crypt was not only a place of eternal rest, but also a place of remembrance of the deceased. Masses were celebrated for the souls of the dead both in the church and at the altar in the crypt. The tombstones erected in the church and the epitaphs placed above the sarcophagi in the crypt preserved the memory of the people buried there (transcripts of crypt epitaphs, see: Historical research report. 2016 (Martynas Jakulis))). The epitaphs contain the dates of birth and death, the place of death and the most important merits of the person’s life. For instance: “Elżbieta Eufemia, born Wiśniowiecka h. Korybut, the wife of Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł, the benefactress of the Jesuit College in Nesvizh, born in 1569, deceased in Biała on 9 November 1596, at the age of 27. The plate was carved in Nesvizh in 1749.” The majority of these inscriptions dedicated to women (with the exception of the above-cited one and a few others) highlight only their kinship to the men of the family and do not reveal other details of their lives. The inscriptions on the plates dedicated to men focus mainly on their titles, positions and awards. Hence, these plates serve as some kind of curriculum vitae. For example, the epitaph of Aleksander Ludwik, the son of Mikołaj Krzysztof, contains the following text: “Aleksander I Ludwik Radziwiłł, the son of Mikołaj VIII, under God’s grace, the Duke of Olyka, Nesvizh, Biržai and Dubingiai; the Duke of the Holy Roman Empire; the Earl of Mir, Kražiai, Szydłowiec and Biała; the Ordynat of Nesvizh; at first the stolnik of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, later the Voivode of Brest, then the Grand Marshal of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, ultimately the Voivode of Polatsk, the starosta of Upytė, Jurbarkas, Šiauliai, Slonim etc., the founder of the church in Mykolaiv, born on 4 August 1594, died in Bologna on 30 March 1654, buried on 13 October of the same year, died at the age of 60. Carved in Nesvizh in 1749.” The lifespan of some individuals buried in the crypt, especially those who died young, was calculated to the accuracy of hours. The epitaph dedicated to the son of Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł Rybeńko (1702-1762), Janusz Tadeusz (1734-1750), among the description of the accomplishments during his short life also specifies that the young Radziwiłł died at the age of 16 years, 8 months, 12 days and 17 hours. Unfortunately, with the passing of time the majority of these epitaphs became crumbled due to humidity and other adverse conditions, and some of them have even deteriorated irreversibly.

By reconstructing the crypt, Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł sought not only to renew the burial place of his ancestors. His desired to unite the dead and living of the family. The cited epitaphs testify to this aspiration: they indicate a specific place in the crypt where the remains of a particular Radziwiłł rest in peace, specify his/her place in the family, i.e. the kinship with other members of the Radziwiłł family, and also indicate which Michał, Krzysztof, Jerzy or Stanisław was buried there. Michał Kazimierz’s ambition is also testified to by his initiative to rebury some of the remains of the Radziwiłłs buried in other churches in the Corpus Christi Church in Nesvizh. On 4 July 1760, he made the following entry in his diary: “I felt so badly in the morning that I had to take some medicine, then I visited the remains of my brothers, Dukes Radziwiłł – Mikołaj, the stolnik of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, who died in Biała in 1715, and was buried by my parents in the church of the Reformanti [Franciscans], and later reburied in the grave of our ancestors through my care, and Hieronim [Florian], the grand standard bearer [chorąży] of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, my youngest brother, who died in Biała on 17 May of this year, let them rest in peace with God.”⁶[The diary of Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł Rybeńko (1719-1761; a copy)], AGAD. AR, dz. VI, nr. II-80a, p. 2269.

Michał Kazimierz’s concern for the family’s dead could have been caused by the fate of the Biržai-Dubingiai line of the Radziwiłł family. In 1732, when inspecting his estates, he visited Dubingiai. On 20 May, he made the following entry in his diary: “We went to church in the morning; after the Mass I visited the abandoned Calvinist church and did not find any remains of the Radziwiłłs there, they had fallen into decay and disappeared altogether.”⁷Ibid., p. 494. Vika Veličkaitė, “Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės didiko Mykolo Kazimiero Radvilos Žuvelės kelionės pagal jo dienoraštį”, Darbai ir dienos, 2015, vol. 64, p. 44. Though at that time the mausoleum in Nesvizh faced no threats, the impression of neglect and oblivion could have encouraged Michał Kazimierz, who complied with the Baroque era’s attitude towards death and the fragility of human existence⁸Vika Veličkaitė, “Mykolo Kazimiero Radvilos, vadinamo Žuvele (1702–1762), dienoraštis: tarp itinerarijaus ir egodokumento”, Privačioji raštija ir egodokumentinis paveldas (series Bibliotheca Lituana, vol. 4), compiled by Arvydas Pacevičius, Vilnius: Akademinė leidyba, 2017, p. 117., to pay more attention to the deceased of his family and to preserve the memory of the past generations even if no members of his family remained alive.

Thus, the mausoleum in Nesvizh was significant as both a luxurious burial space for a noble family, and a place of remembrance – a monument to past generations. Not coincidentally, the Radziwiłłs called this mausoleum sepulchrum patrum – the grave of the ancestors. The common grave, as well as the origin and other commonalities, consolidated the family, strengthened its self-consciousness, and linked the living and the dead. The Radziwiłłs’ attachment to the Corpus Christi Church in Nesvizh as the place of eternal rest is evidenced by their desire to be buried next to their parents and ancestors expressed in their wills. It is also demonstrated by the endeavours of the living to bring back the remains of their deceased kin to Nesvizh even from distant lands. Moreover, the fact that an impressive burial complex consisting of seventy more or less luxurious coffins has been formed over a few hundred years clearly shows its significance.

States and political systems changed, other upheavals took place, but the link between the house of Radziwiłł and its sepulchrum partum did not break. It did not break after the partition of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth when Nesvizh and other Radziwiłł estates were annexed by the Russian Empire, it remained when Nesvizh became part of the Republic of Poland in the interwar period. Probably, the most difficult period had to be the post-war years when Belarus remained behind the Iron Curtain. The Radziwiłłs fled Nesvizh, and their castle was turned into a sanatorium. However, the structure created in the course of several centuries was strong enough to survive even under adverse conditions without any care. Today, when Radziwiłłs do not reside in Nesvizh, the descendants of the family foster the link with the Corpus Christi Church and look after the grave of their ancestors.

Although the Corpus Christi Church and the Radziwiłł family crypt were devastated by the marching troops and floods, ravaged by the prying laymen, the passing of time or moisture accumulated over the time, both have survived. The story of Dubingiai has not been repeated.

Martynas Jakulis