Polish presidential couple to be buried at Wawel Castle
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Polish Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz on Tuesday confirmed that President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria would be buried at the Royal Wawel Castle in Cracow. The mass will be said at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 18.
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People line up to enter the Presidential Palace to bid farewell to the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria in Warsaw April 13, 2010. [Xinhua/Reuters Photo] |
The cardinal said that the presidential couple would be laid to rest in the Jozef Pilsudski crypt.
"It was decided that Wawel is the most respectable site for the president to be laid among other people merited for our homeland, namely kings, heroes, and leaders," Dziwisz said.
The official state funeral ceremony in honor of all victims of the presidential plane crash near Smolensk would be held in Warsaw at 12 p.m. on Saturday.
Cracow Mayor Jacek Majchrowski said the city would be burying the person that embodied the majesty of the Republic of Poland, the president who died tragically while on duty.
"This is a huge logistic operation and Cracow is ready for it," Majchrowski told reporters. He added that some 80 planes are expected at Cracow Balice airport on Sunday.
The presidential couple, together with over 90 others persons, died in an air crash in Smolensk, western Russia, on Saturday morning.
