Protestant Cemetery in Łuczanowice
Kraków Cemeteries
A small Protestant cemetery (Wzgórza Krzesławickie district), also called the Calvinist or Dissenters' cemetery, and the "Arian" cemetery by local people. It was founded before 1626 by the Calvinist Żeleński family, owners of Łuczanowice; as early as 1593 Stanisław Żeleński built a masonry tomb here. In 1787 Marcjan Żeleński raised the four-metre Arian Mound, topped with an obelisk and an urn, which hides the family burial chamber. A few old gravestones survive around the mound.
History
This small cemetery on Orłowskiego Street was founded before 1626 by the Calvinist Żeleński family, owners of Łuczanowice. It began with a brick tomb that Stanisław Żeleński built in 1593. The village also had a congregation of the Polish Brethren, closed by a tribunal ruling in 1687. In 1787 Marcjan Żeleński raised a mound about 4 m high in the cemetery, known as the Arian Mound, and created a new family burial chamber inside it. On top stands a five-metre sandstone obelisk crowned with an urn and bearing the Ciołek coat of arms. Several old gravestones survive around the mound, including the sarcophagus of the officer Ludwik Dębicki. In 1938 Count Andrzej Mycielski gave the neglected cemetery to the Evangelical-Augsburg congregation in Kraków, but tidying it up only became possible after 1989. It was blessed again on 25 September 1993 by Bishop Rudolf Pastucha.
Did you know?
Local people called this the Arian cemetery and the mound the Lutherans' Mound. Traces of the Reformation also survive in the names of nearby streets: Braci Polskich (Polish Brethren) and Kalwińska (Calvinist).