The Old Cemetery and St Roch’s Church

A small stone church on a hill, surrounded by the old cemetery within a wall of 1783. This is where the history of the town becomes the history of its people.

In days gone by, Saints Roch and Sebastian were invoked against the plague. Small wonder, then, that their chapel stood on the edge of town as early as the end of the 16th century. The old church burned down in 1644. The present early Baroque stone church with an apse was funded in 1643–1644 by Abbess Anna Lipska and Samuel Łapka. A fragment of a Gothic triptych from around 1500 survives inside.

Since 1783 the cemetery has spread around the church, enclosed by a stone wall. Here lies Fr Józef Leopold Kmietowicz, leader of the Chochołów Uprising of 1846, who was born in a house on the market square. Also buried here are Szczęsny Morawski (1818–1898), author of the first monograph on Stary Sącz, and the composer Jan Joachim Czech. There is a tomb of the Poor Clare sisters and, according to the municipality, the graves of the parents of the singer Ada Sari.

Walk here slowly, read the inscriptions and note down the names. Always remember that this is still a cemetery, where people come to visit their loved ones.

Photographs

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