Adam Mickiewicz’s tomb at the cemetery in Montmorency, France

The day after Adam Mickiewicz's sudden death in Istanbul (26 October 1855), a series of commemorative photographs were taken of the corpse, Teofil Kwiatkowski drew a posthumous portrait and, in accordance with the custom cultivated at the time, a so-called death mask was made, which was a plaster cast of the face. Later several bronze casts were made of this death mask. One of them inspired the sculptor Auguste Pérault, who created the portrait of Mickiewicz on the now symbolic tomb at the Montmorency cemetery.
By the decision of Prince Adam Czartoryski, leader of the Parisian Great Emigration, Mickiewicz's corpse was transported from Istanbul to France. Here, at the cemetery in Montmorency near Paris, a family tomb was erected, where the corpse of the poet's wife Celina was also transferred.
The medallion with Mickiewicz ‘s portrait was created in 1866, and the tomb was unveiled the following year. On the basis of a crude, realistic death mask, August Perault created an extremely expressive, symbolic work, a portrait of the bard with his head surrounded by a laurel wreath, captured in a moment of creative ecstasy.
Many Poles, emigrants, artists, representatives of the Great Emigration have been buried at the Montmorency cemetery, such as Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Prince Adam Czartoryski, Count Władysław Zamoyski. The cemetery has become a Polish national pantheon in exile.
In 1890 the remains of Adam Mickiewicz were transferred to the Crypt of the National Bards at the Wawel Cathedral, and later the remains of Juliusz Slowacki, who had died in Paris, were also moved there. Since Cyprian Kamil Norwid, who died in the Polish asylum of St. Casimir in Paris, was buried at the Montmorency cemetery in a mass grave, it was not possible to identify his remains. His symbolic burial took place in Wawel's Crypt of the Bards in 2001, and some soil from the mass grave was buried in the crypt.

Projects of POLONIKA Institute
2018-2021 - restoration of Polish tombs at the cemetery in Montmorency, perfomed by: Towarzystwo Opieki nad Polskimi Zabytkami i Grobami Historycznymi we Francji