Roman Catholic cemeteries in Punskas

At present the burials in the parish of Punskas take place at the new Roman Catholic cemetery. The term "new cemetery" is quite relative because the place is over a hundred years old. The first Roman Catholic cemetery in Punskas was established in 1597 when the parish was erected. It was mentioned in the inventory relatively lately - only in 1740, noting that the cemetery had a wooden fence. It was certainly the burial place of the townsmen of Punskas, as peasants till the 19th century were buried in rural cemeteries. In the parish of Punskas such burial places have survived until this day, for example in Agurkiai and Navinykai. The written sources say that in the basement of the first church priests were buried. It is mentioned that there were graves of priests and among them the grave of Kazimieras Šimanauskas. At the beginning of the 19th century burials next to the churches were forbidden, therefore a new cemetery was opened in Punskas. It was located on a small hill on the eastern side of the lake. The oldest document which contains data about burials in this place is the Book of the Dead from 1814-1829. The decoration of the cemetery is a small chapel founded by marshal of the Seinai district - Stanisław Ciemnołoński. It was built at the beginning of 19th century at the burial site of his deceased wife. The new cemetery was created by the efforts of the parish priest, poet, co-worker of the Lithuanian press and a community worker Fr. Simonas Norkus. He bought 6 morgen of land in the nearby village of Trakiškės, located south-east of Punskas. The area of the new parish cemetery is just over 3 hectares. It was divided into 8 parts. Fr. Simonas Norkus built a magnificent brick chapel in the very middle of the cemetery. In the basement of the chapel there are graves of priests Simonas Norkus, Antanas Žievys. The Holy Mass in the chapel is celebrated once a year - on All Saints` Day