The funeral of the renowned writer Stanislaw Lem will be held at midday tomorrow at Cracow's Salwator Cemetery.
It is expected that thousands will come to pay their last respects to the author, whose novels were translated into over 40 languages.
The city initially offered Mr. Lem's family a place in the Rakowicki cemetery, where many distinguished Cracovians have been laid to rest. As it stands, the choice of Salwator is a more modest one, although the more picturesque of the two.
Salwator stands on a hill to the west of the Old Town, and it has a sweeping panorama over the surrounding valley. The hilly setting echoes Mr. Lem's beloved childhood view from the High Castle in Lwow, his city of birth, now Lviv in the Ukraine.
The international press has paid tribute to Mr. Lem as a 'genius' who transcended the pigeon-hole of science fiction. He was born in 1921, and died last Tuesday aged eighty-four. |