Warm weather, different customs surrounding the holiday, and a distinct burial culture — yet the same spirit of remembrance. Campo Verano, the largest cemetery not only in Rome but in all of Italy, becomes a place of prayer and reflection for many Poles living in or visiting the Eternal City.
Members of the Polish community come to the cemetery to lay flowers and light candles. The site also attracts tourists from Poland who happen to be in Rome during All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.
They often seek out the Polish burial sections, including the grave of Countess Karolina Lanckorońska — an aristocrat, survivor of the Ravensbrück concentration camp, press officer of the Polish II Corps, and one of the most prominent figures of the Polish diaspora in Italy after 1945. She passed away in 2002. Her tomb is adorned with flowers in Poland’s national colors and candles bearing the inscription: “The City of Kraków remembers.”
Monika Stojowska / Family News Service
Family News Service