Marcin Święcicki, chairman of the Social Committee for the Protection of Warsaw’s Old Powązki Cemetery, told a press conference on Wednesday that participants would include prominent actors Maja Komorowska, Damian Damięcki and Olgierd Łukaszewicz, as well as upper-house Speaker Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska.
The fundraising drive will take place on November 1 and 2—All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day—when millions of Poles visit cemeteries to honour their deceased loved ones.
Święcicki said that for the first time in many years, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage did not provide financial support for the effort.
He added, however, that renovation work has continued thanks to last year’s collections—which raised the equivalent of about EUR 60,000—as well as donations from Warsaw City Hall, the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, the Warsaw Council of Notaries and private donors.
Marcin Święcicki. Photo: Wojciech Kusiński/Polskie Radio
Plans for next year include restoring 14 historic tombs, among them the grave of Stanisław Moniuszko, known as the father of Polish national opera, according to Święcicki.
Fundraising at Powązki Cemetery has been held annually since 1974, leading to the renovation of more than 1,700 graves and chapels.
Polish actor Daniel Olbrychski helping raise funds for the renovation of tombstones at Warsaw's historic Powązki Cemetery on All Saints' Day, Nov. 1, 2022. Photo: PAP/Tomasz Gzell
Founded in 1790, Powązki is one of Poland’s most historic cemeteries and a listed monument of national heritage.
It is the final resting place of Nobel Prize-winning writer Władysław Reymont, poets Leopold Staff and Bolesław Leśmian, novelist Maria Dąbrowska, actors Stefan Jaracz and Józef Węgrzyn, opera singer Jan Kiepura and members of Fryderyk Chopin’s family, including his parents and three sisters.
(mk/gs)