Kalvaryja ( Belarusian: Кальварыя, ) is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Calvary Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early mediev ...

cemetery in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

. The cemetery contains a small Catholic

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

, currently used for general worship. The original wooden Catholic church was first built here back in 1673, but currently the oldest remaining graves are from 1808. The small chapel was built in 1839. Several famous Polish and Belarusian personalities from the 19th century are buried at Kalvaryja. In 2001, the cemetery became the center of a controversy when it was revealed that the state-run company responsible for taking care of the graves was destroying old graves and selling the newly freed slots to the wealthy.

External links

Photos on Radzima.org
* Cemeteries in Belarus Catholic cemeteries in Europe Buildings and structures in Minsk Roman Catholic churches in Belarus Churches completed in 1808 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Belarus {{Belarus-geo-stub