Poland's Ministry of Culture and National Heritage has presented a list of renovation projects of Polish graves abroad.
Funds from the Ministry have been used for complex renovation works, as well as inventarization and documentation at many cemeteries in Eastern and Western countries. This has included the tomb of composer Frederic Chopin at Père-Lachaise in Paris, the tomb of poet Franciszek Karpiński at the parish cemetery in Łysków (now Belarus), the tomb of Polish artists at Campo Verano in Rome (Italy), and the tomb of Ignacy Domeyko at Cementerio General in Santiago de Chile, among others.
The biggest project comprised a set of over 150 renovations at Lychakyiv Cemetery in Lviv (Ukraine), one of the oldest and most important historically burial grounds in Europe. The project was carried out in cooperation with the administration of Lviv, by joint Polish-Ukrainian teams of conservation specialists. Among the tombs are those of the painter Artur Grottger, revolutionist and writer Seweryn Goszczyński, president of Lvov Tadeusz Rutowski, writer Gabriela Zapolska, Ukrainian priest and poet Markiyan Shashkevych and the graves of insurgents from the November uprising of 1830.
With the assistance of the state's POLONIKA Institute of Polish Cultural Heritage Abroad, established in 2017, it has been possible to arrange 6 renovation projects at Polish cemeteries outside the country (i.a. in Ukraine, Lithuania and Moldova). The Institute has renovated tombs of Poles laid to rest at Hietaniemi cemetery in Helsinki, Finland, Sapichkhia (Saphiczka) Cemetery in Kutaisi, Georgia, and Les Champeaux in Montmorency, France - among others the tombs of painter Olga Boznańska, ethnographer Bronisław Piłsudski, the Jaroszyński family chapel and the grave stele of Adam Mickiewicz there.
Within the Institute's volunteer programme it was possible, among others, to carry out the documentation of 4 Polish graveyards in Zambia (Bwana Mkubwa, Mbala, Livingstone and Chipata), as well as in Belarus (Naliboki forest), Moldova (Rascov, Jahorlik) and Lithuania.
The Institute also has under its care Polish wartime cemeteries in 53 countries worldwide. These include Monte Cassino, Loreto and Bologna (Italy), graveyards in Uzbekistan (17), Kazakhstan (4), Kirgistan (1), Israel (2), Iran (5), Lebanon (1), Ukraine (40 cemeteries and memorials). From 2017 it has renovated 26 cemeteries and memorials from the time of the Polish-Bolshevik war of 1920 (in Lithuania, Belarus and Latvia). By the end of 2020 work is to be completed at another 14.
Source: MKiDN