Zuokas: Rasos Cemetery is to become a place that stimulates reflection

Restoring the Rasos Cemetery is the priority of the local government.

The local government plans to strengthen the hill of the cemetery, renew the chapels, and install surveillance monitoring and lighting.

“There are several historical cemeteries in Vilnius. Considering their history, and who was buried there, they are of major importance to Europe. We are experienced. We cooperated with the Adam Mickiewicz’s Foundation on restoring the Bernardine Cemetery. The Rasos Cemetery is even bigger and more important” – said the mayor of Vilnius, Arturas Zuokas, during the talk with zw.lt.

The restoration of the cemetery will be mostly covered from the European funds. The local government aims to “preserve the historical spirit of the place” – highlighted Zuokas.

“Our aim is to make the visitors of the cemetery feel almost like walking in the park. We want to enable the families of the dead to visit the graves and pay their respects. At the same time, we intend to make it a place worth sightseeing. It is to become a place that stimulates philosophical reflection” – explained the mayor.

According to Zuokas, after the restoration, the Rasos Cemetery will attract tourists from all over the world, not only Poles or Belarusians.

The local government also aims to restore the Missionaries Garden, the Reformers Park, and open the Park of the Righteous Among the Nations which is supposed to commemorate people that helped Jews during the Holocaust. The Park of the Righteous Among the Nations is to be set in the Jerozolimka district in Vilnius.