The state funeral for the first couple of Poland took place in Krakow on Sunday ending a week of national mourning since the fatal plane crash in Smolensk, Russia.
The ceremony began with a procession from Balice Airport to St. Mary’s Basilica, Krakow’s famous mediaeval church in the city’s Main Market Square. Crowds lined the procession route to pay their last respects, throwing flowers and waving the red and white Polish flag.
At 2.00 p.m. local time, with sirens ringing and church bells tolling, so began the couple’s last Mass at St. Mary’s Basilica.
Meanwhile, outside the church thousands of people gathered to watch the ceremony on giant TV screens. The requiem Mass in the gothic Basilica of Saint Mary was performed by an emissary of Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
The caskets of Lech Kaczynski and the first lady Maria Kaczynski were then transported to Wawel Cathedral for burial, the final resting place traditionally reserved for the nation’s heroes, including poets and kings. They were buried in a royal crypt of Wawel next to the grave of Poland’s revered independence leader, Jozef Pilsudski.
The ceremony began with a procession from Balice Airport to St. Mary’s Basilica, Krakow’s famous mediaeval church in the city’s Main Market Square. Crowds lined the procession route to pay their last respects, throwing flowers and waving the red and white Polish flag.
At 2.00 p.m. local time, with sirens ringing and church bells tolling, so began the couple’s last Mass at St. Mary’s Basilica.
Meanwhile, outside the church thousands of people gathered to watch the ceremony on giant TV screens. The requiem Mass in the gothic Basilica of Saint Mary was performed by an emissary of Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
The caskets of Lech Kaczynski and the first lady Maria Kaczynski were then transported to Wawel Cathedral for burial, the final resting place traditionally reserved for the nation’s heroes, including poets and kings. They were buried in a royal crypt of Wawel next to the grave of Poland’s revered independence leader, Jozef Pilsudski.
The state funeral was attended by about 80 foreign delegations, including many country leaders. But some heads of state had canceled their trips to Krakow due to the giant ash cloud moving across Europe that caused air travel chaos after a volcano erupted in Iceland days earlier.
Among those who canceled were U.S. President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf, and Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, and Finnish President Tarja Halonen.
“President Kaczynski was a patriot and close friend and ally of the United States, as were those who died alongside him, and the American people will never forget the lives they led,” Obama said in a statement.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero along with King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sophia had also canceled their trips.
A day before, in Warsaw’s largest square, Marshal Jozef Pilsudski, over 100,000 people had joined a solemn memorial Mass to honor the late first couple who had been lying in state since their bodies were returned to Poland earlier in the week.
After the Mass, the caskets were taken by procession to Warsaw Metropolitan Church where Mass was conducted by Henryk Muszyski, the primate of Poland. After the Mass, an all-night vigil began.
The first couple and 94 others, including many of Poland’s elite from politics, the military, and clergy, were killed on April 10 when the president’s plane clipped treetops as it approached Severny Airport near Russia’s Smolensk city in heavy fog. The plane crashed and blew up killing everyone on board.
The Polish delegation had been heading to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the mass execution of Polish elite during World War II at Katyn forest, 12 miles from the plane crash site.
The final results of the investigation conducted by both Russian and Polish officials have not yet been made public. They are expected to be announced next week.
The head of the Russian Interstate Aviation Committee, Tatyana Anodina claimed on April 15 that the pilots had tried landing the plane only once instead of four times as earlier reported.
