The Bernardine Cemetery (Lithuanian: Bernardinų kapinės, Polish: cmentarz Bernardyński) is one of the three oldest cemeteries in Vilnius, Lithuania. It covers about 38,000 square metres and has estimated 14,000 burials. It was established in 1810 by Bernardine monks of the Church of St. Francis of Asisi and is situated on an embankment on the Vilnia river, just east of the city center in the Užupis district. It was established when Tsarist authorities of the Russian Empire prohibited to bury the dead near churches. Residents of Vilnius moved the cemetery what was then outskirts of the city.
In the east and west the cemetery was surrounded by columbariums. The cemetery was expanded in 1860. After World War II the cemetery was abandoned and started deteriorating. It was closed in the 1970s and since then remained almost unchanged. Many of the oldest graves are sinking into the ground and covered in moss. Eastern columbarium is almost entirely gone. Some restoration and reconstruction of its buildings and monuments, including western columbarium, began in the late 1990s. It is a joint Lithuanian and Polish effort.
Numerous famous scientists, painters and Vilnius University, intellectuals, professors and other renowned people are buried there including:
