Shadows in the sun cemetery

Saules Kapines, or cemetery of the sun, is tucked away behind the magnificent St Peter and St Paul church in Antakalnis. Compared to the tidy rows of war graves and artistic extravaganza of the intellectuals buried next door in Antakalnis cemetery, saules kapines is a cemetery for more ordinary types. Its jumble of crosses, verdant greenery and steep slopes makes it very much a place detached from the suburban surroundings – a place in that grey zone between reality and fantasy that would fit right into a novel by Gabriel García Marquez. The headstones pay tribute to the journalists, printers, doctors and academics that lie underneath. A friend remarked that it was probably a “Polish” cemetery, having glanced at some of the surnames on the graves. But in fact, it is relatively mixed, and it is clear that many of the Polish names pre-date the upheaval that befell Vilnius around the start of World War I, before which the city was heavily dominated by Jewish and Polish demographics. It is not a place to put on a weekend bucket list for a visitor to Vilnius, but if you happen to have the way past, it is not a bad place to stop and contemplate the diversity of spirits that have called Vilnius home.