The Via Jagiellonica Foundation has prepared a special tour of Lublin in November. In keeping with the Polish tradition, the tour will involve visiting burial sites, including church crypts and churchyards.
The tour around the cemeteries in Lipowa Street is only an introduction to further exploratory searches.
“It has been a social practice for two hundred years to locate cemeteries outside city centres. In the past, however, travellers following the Cracow-Lublin-Vilnius trail could see them even at market squares, one example of that being the former graveyard at St. Mary's Church in Cracow. A similar situation could be observed in Lublin, which is proved by the presence of Po Farze Square. Churches themselves were privileged burial sites,” says Janusz Kopaczek, President of the Jagiellonian Trail Tourist Organisation that holds patronage over the tour prepared by the foundation. The November tour programme has been scheduled such to remind participants of the partly “forgotten” world of former churchyards and to make them familiar with selected crypts.
“The tour starts at the Roman-Catholic cemetery in Lipowa Street. Tour participants will look, among others, for burial grounds transferred from cemeteries that have been closed down. They will also reflect on this process as done at Orthodox and Lutheran Churches. Tour participants will then visit Our Lady of Victories Church, where crypts are open to visitors. They will also have an opportunity to visit Jesuit or bishop crypts at the Metropolitan Cathedral. The tour programme also includes visiting the former churchyard at St. Spirit Church, tombstones at Dominican Church, Po Farze Square as well as St. Wojciech Church at St. Lazarus Hospital. The tour will end at Saint Nicolas Church, at the site of the former Na Czwartku churchyard,” says Bartosz Tratkowski, President of the Via Jagiellonica Foundation.
The whole tour takes up to 4 hours. The offer is primarily for organized groups, including organized school groups. The fee for tour guide services is PLN 180 (10% discount for schools administered by self-government bodies that are members of the Jagiellonian Trail Tourist Organization). Admission fees to selected crypts: Our Lady of Victories Church - PLN 3/1,5 per person, Metropolitan Cathedral - PLN 4/3 per person). To sign up for the tour, contact the organizer at the Via Jagiellonica Tourist Services Centre in Lublin (Monday through Friday, 8am-4pm), ul. Skłodowskiej 3/15, phone: (81) 441-11-18,
www.szlakjagiellonski.pl
