Guided tour at the Jewish cemetery in Mszana Dolna as part of European Heritage Days

On 14 September 2025, we gave another guided tour at the renovated Jewish cemetery in Mszana Dolna. It was part of a series of important nationwide events, European Heritage Days.

Despite the not entirely favourable weather, the meeting was very successful!

The group of visitors was not deterred by the rain that had been falling since morning and embarked on an extraordinary journey through time and space. Through the history of life and death – both natural, pre-war, and terrible, from the time of the Holocaust – of their former fellow citizens, through the history of this historic Mszana necropolis and the history of its rescue, to the quite recent joy of the renovation.  And the sky seemed to want to favour the event – the rain almost completely stopped for its duration.

The participants of the tour learned about the names of the cemetery in accordance with Jewish tradition, the rules of conduct on them, the basics of Jewish tombstone symbolism, the types of graves (of which there are three types: matzevot, obelisks and tombs, which can be seen at the cemetery in Mszana), the intricacies of inscriptions, as well as some elements of their finesse, such as acrostics repeating the name of the deceased. These are like additional codes of memory on these small and often intricate architectural works.

Those gathered at the Mszana necropolis learned why a pebble is the most important symbol of remembrance in Judaism and under what unique circumstances it is traditional to light a candle on Jewish graves – a light for the soul. It is Yahrzeit, the anniversary of the death of the deceased, when the soul comes to the grave and should not remain there alone, in darkness and sadness, hence the obligatory visit to the graves of loved ones on this day. Candles and grave lights are becoming increasingly common on Jewish graves, which is the result of a certain intermingling of cultures and traditions.

The limited time and poor weather conditions did not allow us to stop at each of the historic gravestones. Therefore, the participants were shown the most interesting, oldest and most original ones, as well as those where the inscriptions were clear enough for even those unfamiliar with Hebrew letters to notice interesting patterns and acrostic inscriptions. Those who wanted more stayed longer to ask for details in smaller groups. And, of course, we had to leave some interesting facts for future tours.

The event was part of European Heritage Days (in which the Sztetl Mszana Dolna Foundation participated once again), as well as the Foundation's project ‘The Story of the Jewish Cemetery in Mszana Dolna. Edition 2025’.
Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage as part of the National Heritage Institute's programme – Together for Heritage 2025.