Pyatnitsky cemetery (ancient cossack cemetery), Kremenets

In addition to the Jewish one, there is also a Cossack cemetery in Kremenets. Once upon a time in the cemetery there was a tent-shaped wooden church of St. Paraskeva. The church was later moved to the city, but the cemetery was abandoned. According to local lore, local people were buried there because crosses were carved out of stone. Of interest are 4 tombstones in the form of a kobza. There is a version that when the Cossacks stormed the Kremenets Castle, the kobzars were killed. Another version tells us that the Cossacks killed during the storming were buried in the cemetery, but when they were buried, the locals began to say, it is not easy to be escorted into the last path at night, but to wait till the morning and bury them on top of another mountain. When morning came, people saw that there were no Cossacks, and there were only stone cobbled crosses, as they were guards of the city Kremenets.

 

Kobzars seasonal meetings were also started in Kremenets. Famous musicians from Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora came to the city. It was from the Cossack Cemetery that the action began, ending with the playing of kobzars in the open air.

 

Translated by: Victoria Pereyma