Old Vilnius Cemeteries

If you think you’ve seen everything in Vilnius already – we dare to ask: have you visited the old Vilnius cemeteries? If you haven’t done that yet – we invite you to experience a unique and unconventional walk.

We invite you to choose from two different tour paths:

1. Rasų Cemetery. The oldest city cemetery (1796). A lot of scientists, artists, public figures, such as the activist and folklorist Jonas Basanavicius and and composer and painter M.K. Ciurlionis were buried here. No more burials are taking place in this cemetery.
2. Antakalnis Cemetery. It does not differ much from Rasų cemetery much in terms of age (est. 1809) – but it differs in on significant fact – to this day the most prominent Lithuanian public figures are being buried here. Antakalnis Cemetery is commonly o referred to as the Military Cemetery. 12 of the 14 Soviet Union protest victims from 1991 TV tower attack are buried here, as well as the victims of Soviet Medininkai Massacre. Among other perished soldiers there are graves of Polish soldiers from 1919-20, Lithuanian, German and Russian soldiers who have fallen in World War 1 and thousands of French soldiers of Napoleon’s Army, whose remains were found in Vilnius and reburied in Antakalnis in 2001.

Beside these cemeteries, Vilnius has another location that is also listed among the most noteworthy  in European heritage cemetery catalogue – Bernardinų cemetery. If you order a tour in Uzupis – it is one of the sights on the itinerary.

Highly recommended! Once a year, when Lithuanians celebrate Vėlinės ( Day of the Dead), visiting at least one of the cemeteries mentioned. At that time, the home of the peacefully resting are covered in flowers, and tons of small candles. At that time, you will find more people in the cemeteries than the city streets.