It's Official

 The entrance to Lychakiv Cemetery

It is official, I have decided that I like cemeteries better than museums. It took me less than 45 minutes from entrance to exit the Louvre in Paris, while it took me hours upon hours over two separate days to see the Recoleta Necropolis in Buenos Aires. After 2 hours in a cemetery this morning, I feel like I could have spent the rest of the day here.
Today I explored Lychakiv Cemetery on the east side of L'viv, Ukraine. Once inside I bought the map and followed the well manicured path that snakes its way through the grounds. The map has photos of highlighted tombs (usually the rich and famous) and guides where to find them. Since I didn't know the name of any more than a grand total of one of the people interred here, the experience for me is more like admiring artwork in a museum.

 

Tomb of Ivan Franko (Иван Франко)- the only name I know in the cemetery

I stroll along looking at the monuments, trying to sound out the names and see if there is any other information about the person or family I can pick up from what I can see. This cemetery is closed to motor traffic (except maintenance and funerary vehicles), so walking through is expected. Also, if they are charging admission and selling maps, they are obviously expecting visitors. It is a nice looking cemetery even if it seems a little too crowded. The sites aren't laid out in perfect alignment, but they aren't necessarily on top of each other either. Some of the tomb sculptures (the part that really fascinates me) are looking a little weathered, but usually appropriately so (although there is one statue I saw where the heads have come off). As I walk along the path, getting my bearings and doing my own thing, I do notice that even though the entire cemetery is on the map, the highlighted route only covers a small portion of the grounds.

The "nicer" looking area of the grounds

Curious about what lay beyond the map's thick red line, I veer off the main "road" and take a side "street" if you will. As I do, I am almost immediately struck by the neglect and overgrowth just steps away from the pristine promenade. Back on the main thoroughfare I saw maintenance workers, sweepers, and landscapers- and their work showed. I actually saw a woman using a dental pick-like scraper to score between the bricks near some tombs and sweeping the debris into piles.

 

This gentleman's job is to chisel the names of the newly departed onto family monuments

But it is obvious that this portion does not receive that kind of attention. I get my journal out.

 

Hard to believe this is the same cemetery

 

The Popiel Family crypt

As I stand in front of "pole 55" I am faced with the overgrown tomb of the Popiel family. I chose this one randomly as it just happened to be facing me when I pulled out my journal. The people buried here died in 1908 and 1911 making this tomb about 100 years old and I imagine that the number of annual visitors to this spot (I mean, specifically to see these people) is relatively low. They have probably joined the ranks of the forgotten as even the modern descendents of these century-long dead folks don't come to pay respects of any kind anymore. The tomb has gathered moss and is now overgrown with ferns. The ground that immediately surrounds the headstone is lacking in its upkeep and ranges from completely overgrown on one side to sand incapable of sustaining floral life on the other side. The tomb that straddles the two areas a perfect metaphor for the side with life, albeit overgrown, that has potential to be tended to on one side to the dead side that receives no attention whatsoever. It is already a little difficult to make out all of the markings and sadly, I expect in time the weather will completely erode the facade of the headstone and Karol Popiel Staosta and Jakubina Popielow Bodakowska will be completely forgotten and relegated to an unmarked grave located at the base of pole 55. Graves, tombs, headstones, etc. are merely a way for the dead to be presented to the living, whether it is a relative or a stranger. Before today, this moment even, I don't think I have ever given any thought as to what happens when the tomb itself disappears. This grave marker has been around for 100 years and it is already showing signs of significant wear. It looks like all these monuments do is prolong the dead's time on earth by serving as reminders to others for a couple of generations. After time and the elements have their way with the markers that once served such a great purpose, they will eventually fade into obscurity...that time, probably for eternity.

 

Just one of the many headstone sculptures in the cemetery

 

I have seen these gothic monuments before. I find them remarkably beautiful

 

One section with Russian war dead

 

Overlooking the section where the war dead are buried

 

Section with Polish war dead

 

I liked this tomb for the detail. Difficult to see, but he holds eyeglasses in his right hand, sitting on his shoulder; and also for the books by his right knee. He was a doctor.

This was the most interesting sculpture to me. I assumed, at first, that it was supposed to be the deceased sleeping? But with the ruffled bedspread and her position, I cannot help but to think that the sculpture is actually reflecting a postmortem state. I think a strange reminder to the visitors- not to remember her as she was, but as she is...now- dead. Either way, hauntingly beautiful in my eyes.