Village cemetery: cultural heritage and the present

Abstract

Cemetery is syncretic cultural phenomenon, the part of material and spiritual cultural heritage. Village cemeteries, were formed when villages and religious communities were instituted, are not only the part of a landscape, but also a sacral, esteemed place, and also an object which consolidates village community. When villages are declining, and with the changing of historical, political and cultural circumstances, the cemeteries of villages and towns are also changing- some of them are fast declining, the other- become "modem", i.e. the old tombstones, built in 19th cent., because of various reasons, are replaced with the new ones. In this work the features of the cemeteries of north east Lithuanian villages and towns, and also material cultural heritage, are analysed with reference to factual material, historical and other documents.