BDAR

Bitėnai (Šilėnai) cemetery

55.069, 22.045
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The Bitė Stream divides the Bitėnai Village (the right tributary to the Nemunas) into two parts, like two villages in Šilėnai (near the warm, large mass of the Bitėnai forest) and Užbičiai (the village behind the Bitė stream). These parts of the villages had separate cemeteries: the Bitėnai-Uzbičiai and the Bitėnai-Šilėnai. The Bitėnai-Šilėnai cemetery was set up on the edge of the forest. In the Soviet era, like many cemeteries in this land, it was very much destroyed. Specifically in this place these were searched for Napoleon's treasure, as they saw one of three signs allegedly marking the location of the treasure. So far, two powerful oaks of magnitude 4.1 and 3.1 m have grown in the cemetery. There was organized a treasure search at the level of state in 1974. Excavators excavated a hole as deep as 10 m, and most of these cemeteries were desecrated. The cemetery was recovered in 2010 by the initiative and expense of the printer, the grandchild of public figure Martynas Jankus – Eva Jankus–Gerola (Ieva Jankutė). There stands a sculpture by sculptor Algirdas Bosas, “Prussian for the Remembrance of Lithuanian Eyes.” In 2014, Eva Jankus-Gerola also lay down for an eternal rest in the Bitėnai-Šilėnai cemetery alongside her ancestors. The whole family of her mother Anė was buried here - the Kerkojai, who lived in the Bitėnai-Šilėnai.