CEMETERY CHAPEL

There is a cemetery chapel at the Wizna cemetery. Its history dates back to the 14th century, when in 1390 a wooden church of St. The Evangelist's brand, burnt in the 1400, rebuilt and consecrated after 15 years. The files of the visitation of the church from 1822 are still silent about the cemetery chapel. We learn about it only from the request of Józef Kulesza addressed to the Bishop of Lomza on July 3, 1930. In this letter he informs about building in the previous year (1929) a brick cemetery chapel by the donors Antoni and Emilia Dobroński. He asked the bishop for the possibility of dedicating and celebrating services in it, stating that it will serve only for the glory of God, and "the graves of the dead will not be placed in it except only those that were there for years". He explains that this chapel was erected on the site of an old wooden chapel, which was destroyed. The bishop accepted the request, placing an annotation under it, in which he indicated that this chapel was to become the property of the church of Wizna and serve for the celebration of funeral services. When the former wooden cemetery chapel was built and who was buried in it, unfortunately, it was not mentioned in this document. One can only assume that until then it was private and could be the burial place of one of the distinguished families from the Wizna parish.

The cemetery chapel is at first glance a typical object of this type created at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, but attention is drawn to the turret on the roof. This completely alien element is probably the tip of the old, gothic church wall that exists on the roof until World War II. (middle photography)

In 2017, the rafter framing was replaced, and the chapel was covered with ceramic tiles. (main photography) During the renovation works, a crypt with coffins inside it was accidentally discovered under the chapel floor. At the beginning of February, works on discovered burials began in the cemetery crypt.

PThe work was carried out by an architectural and archaeological team. According to current knowledge, the crypt dates back to the 17th century. Since four coffins were first discovered, it was thought that there were burials of four people there. After another inspection it was found that burials contain remains of up to eleven people. Some people were buried in decorative coffins. No valuable items were found on the dead. An interesting fact is a wooden cross in a fairly good condition with a reliquary, found in the grave of an elderly woman. The cross has already been handed over for conservation restoration. In parallel with archaeological and archaeological works, historical searches are carried out to help determine possible buried people. Previous work has been preliminary and will continue in the future.

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Authors: Agnieszka Sawicka, Krystyna Wileńska, Agnieszka Osiecka i Małgorzata Modzelewska.