Powazki Cemetery

Powazki Cemetery – the oldest and best-known Catholic cemetery in Warsaw, founded in 1790, designed by Dominik Merlini – the court architect of King Stanisław August Poniatowski. Since its establishment, a million people have been buried there, including many well-known and distinguished Poles. You will come across the graves of many eminent writers, artists, scholars, politicians, doctors, entrepreneurs and social activists. It was with them in mind that in the inter-war years the Avenue of the Deserved was created. The first to be buried there were the writer and Nobel Prize winner Władysław Reymont, legendary airmen Franciszek Żwirko and Stanisław Wigura, the world-famous opera singer Jan Kiepura and the poet and satirist Wojciech Młynarski. In the adjacent Catacombs you will discover the graves of once popular singers Irena Jarocka and Czesław Niemen, and the tombstones of Fryderyk Chopin’s parents, the poet Zbigniew Herbert, composer Witold Lutosławski and director Krzysztof Kieślowski. It’s best to visit the cemetery on All Souls’ Day. Poles come to the graves of their relatives that day, and the cemetery is lit up by thousands of candles.