Artist's impression of the presidential tomb.

People are still queueing at Krakow’s Wawel Cathedral to pay their last respects to the presidential couple.

After yesterday’s funeral ceremony in Poland’s southern city, the crypt containing the sarcophagus of Maria and Lech Kaczynski was opened to the public who wanted to pay tribute to them.

The last mourners left after 1am Monday morning, after which the crypt was sealed off for renovation work and for putting the final touches to the tomb, made of amber-coloured onyx slabs.

Mourners gathered by the Wawel Cathedral Monday morning, as the crypt was reopened at 9am for people to pay their respects. The crypt is to remain open until 9pm Monday evening. From Tuesday the crypt will be open at normal opening hours of the Wawel Cathedral.

The final resting place of the Kaczynskis is in fact a vestibule of the crypt in which Marshal Jozef Pilsudski lies. Pilsudski is celebrated as being one of the founders of the Polish Second Republic.

Pilsudski’s family had initially protested at the presidential couple lying juxtaposed to the Marshal, hence the decision was made to house Maria and Lech Kaczynski in the vestibule.

President Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria, and 94 other prominent public figures died in a plane crash near the Russian town of Smolensk. They were going to a 70-year commemoration of the Katyn massacre, where over 20,000 Polish officers were murdered by the NKVD Soviet secret police, under direct orders of Stalin. (jb)

Related stories:

Poland says goodbye to president, thenews.pl, 18.04.2010

President's tomb design released, thenews.pl, 16.04.2010