Viduramžių Kauno kapinių kelias nebūtin - archeologiniai ir kultūriniai metmenys

LTViduramžių miesto kapinės svarbios norint suvokti miesto kultūrinę raidę. Archeologiškai tyrinėjant kapavietes atsiskleidžia miesto bendruomenės socialiniai ir kultūriniai aspektai, rekonstruojami miesto istorinės raidos etapai, susipažįstama su bendruomenės struktūra. Iš kitų Lietuvos miestų Kaunas išsiskiria ryškia tokio pobūdžio tyrimų spraga. Straipsnyje apžvelgiama miesto bažnyčių šventoriuose besikūrusių kapinių raida, keliama jų sunykimo problema. Įvertinant miesto raidos aspektus, apibūdinama elgsena su tokio pobūdžio kultūrinės atminties vietomis. Straipsnyje nagrinėjama ir vertinama kapinių archeologinių tyrimų eiga ir rezultatų sklaida, ieškoma atsakymo, kas lėmė tokių istorinės atminties vietų artėjimų prie jų visiškos užmaršties šiandieninėje visuomenėje. Reikšminiai žodžiai: šventorius, kapinės, kripta, archeologiniai tyrimai, įkapės, istorinė atmintis. [Iš leidinio]

ENUrban cemeteries are essential for our understanding of society. In a Medieval town they were usually by churches, and over the centuries evolved into an important place of identity and memory. Kaunas, however, stands out from other Lithuanian cities and towns by its painful loss of such sites of memory. The oldest cemetery was created close to the parish Church of St Peter and Paul the Apostles (the cathedral basilica) and the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (also known as the Church of Vytautas the Great). Separate plots of land were formed for these cemeteries in the town plan during the foundation of the town. Scanty research evidence suggests that the dead were buried in as many as four levels in the churchyard of the Vytautas Church; there was therefore a large number of graves there. Unfortunately, most of the cemetery was destroyed during construction work in the 1980s. Neither has the large area intended for burials next to the cathedral been explored. Extensive work took place in the churchyard and the church in the second half of the 20th century, although no research was conducted. It was concluded that the ground level had been destroyed by grave digging in many places. The town’s fast urban growth in the 15th century must have caused the cemeteries in the churchyards of the parish church and the Vytautas Church to rapidly fill up. In the late 15th century, new cemeteries with masonry chapels were founded on the outskirts of the town: the cemeteries of St Nicholas (up the hill near the suburb of Ragine) and St Gertrude (on the road to Vilnius). Another newly founded cemetery, the Bernardine Cemetery, was situated next to the Monastery of St George. This cemetery, which was in use from the 16th century, greatly expanded, and occupied an extensive area in the central part of the old town in the 17th century, encompassing as many as three urban parcels of land.This development reflected the trend to establish monastic communities in the city with cemeteries nearby. Over 20 crypts installed in the Church of St George in the late 17th century held the remains of members of the city’s noble families; however, most of the crypts were later looted. The losses are vast. Research into burials in the monastery courtyard has been conducted embracing nearly 40 burial sites dating from the late 16th and early 17th century. Sadly, in the course of laying urban communications in the 1980s, no research was carried out on the monastery cemetery, which had expanded since the end of the 16th century, leading to the irreversible loss of valuable archaeological and anthropological material. Mixed human bones and skeletal remains have often been found in the dug-up soil while performing excavations in the cemetery existing since the 15th century at the Church of St Nicholas; however, it remains unknown why the graves in the churchyard were devastated to such degree. The brick Church of St Gertrude, located outside the town on the road leading to Vilnius, has been mentioned since the late 15th century, with a cemetery that existed for more than three centuries. Partial excavations were conducted in the churchyard site when communications were laid in preparation for large-scale construction work next to the church in the 1970s and 1980s. Regrettably, a report on the previous research merely mentions the existence of a cemetery, without providing any detailed research data on burials. At a later period, part of the built-up area and over 30 grave sites were excavated, at least three distinct horizons of grave burials were identified, and reports were produced. However, the bone material was lost afterwards in a church fire. The dating of the burials is split into three periods (early to mid-i6th century, late 16th century, and the first half of the 17th century).There is evidence of numerous burials inside the church; the remains, however, have been destroyed and lost. There is another newly discovered cemetery beside the Dominican church. The site was identified during recent restoration work on the church, and 42 burials dating from the 17th and 18th centuries were excavated; some noble families from the Kaunas powiat had burial crypts inside the church. One reason for the loss of historic cemeteries in the city was the urbanisation process in the period of Imperial Russian rule and the Soviet era, which had a painful impact on the texture of the memory of Medieval Kaunas. Another aspect is the interaction between Medieval culture and memory culture and the deceased, indifference to remains, anonymous burials, and the multiple use of burial pits. Therefore, very limited tangible signs of the memory of the deceased have come down to us. In 1796, a new Catholic cemetery was planned and set up next to the remains of the brick city wall, behind the Tartar Gate, and the practice of burials around churches was discontinued. However, this cemetery soon closed and was replaced by a city garden, while a new cemetery was designed in 1847 that encompassed uninhabited land under Carmelite jurisdiction, including the New Town. The cemetery functioned there until the Soviet-period Kaunas Executive Committee, fearing political excess, decided to liquidate it in 1959. In this way, the cemeteries of Kaunas changed, being covered over and forgotten, built over, and relegated to oblivion. [From the publication]