In Lithuania, a series of archival documents with photographs by Jan Bułhak has been published

Photo from the crypt in Vilnius Cathedral, taken between 1931 and 1937. Author Jan Bułhak

Among the published materials are photographs by Jan Bułhak, which capture the interwar archaeological excavations of the kings' crypt in Vilnius Cathedral and the remains of monarchs. One series of photographs is signed as "Photos of the ruins of Vilnius Cathedral, basilica, crypts of kings: Alexander Jagiellon, Barbara Radziwiłł, and others, underground passages and others before cleaning from fallen lime, during works and after restoration".

Павялічыць

Павялічыць

Павялічыць

Jan Bułhak is a well-known Belarusian and Polish photographer and ethnographer of the 19th and 20th centuries, who came from Navahrudak region. He is known not only as a master of local history photography, but also as an educator, bibliographer, folklorist, art historian, and the first Belarusian historian of photography. He is the author of dozens of articles on Belarusian folklore and local history ("Excursions to Svitsyaz", 1910; "Easter songs in Minsk region (valačobniki)", 1911, etc.), works about the artist Ferdynand Ruszczyc, research and textbooks on the aesthetics and technique of photography. He is also the author of a special work "About the first Vilnius photographers of the 19th century" (1939) and a book of memoirs "The Land of Childhood Years", which reflects the life of Navahrudak region at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century.

Jan Bułhak's work influenced the development of art photography in Belarus, Poland, and Lithuania.

Павялічыць

In the crypt of the Cathedral

The topic of the Cathedral crypts came to prominence in April 2026, after Saulius Poderyz, who previously searched for royal insignia in the Cathedral, publicly announced that the remains of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas might have been discovered as early as 1931 in the Vilnius Archcathedral and lay in one crypt together with the remains of Prince Alexander Jagiellon.

According to the scholar, Vytautas's remains are likely still in the capital's sanctuary.

"We have already identified the place where this skeleton might be located. Only political will, permits, and all necessary procedures are needed — and it can be found," the researcher noted.

Poderyz claims that there are well-founded suspicions: in 1931, after a major spring flood, four royal burials were found in the Cathedral — those of Alexander Jagiellon, Elizabeth of Habsburg, Barbara Radziwiłł, and Vytautas the Great.

In the archives, the researcher found documents indicating that at the time, sarcophagi were planned for four individuals, but only three discovered burials were reported to the Polish authorities, which Vilnius was then part of. As early as 1806, the Cathedral's prelate, Franciszek Ksawery Bogusz, wrote in a letter that Vytautas was also buried in Alexander's crypt, but they were unable to show him this place.

The hypothesis of four burials is confirmed by negatives that Poderyz found in an archive in Gdańsk. They document the renovation of the Cathedral and the construction of the royal mausoleum. One photograph shows three skeletons, another shows four.

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