Only about two kilometers away from the Jewish Cemetery (bus no 180 connects these two, the journey would take you about 9 minutes) I wrote about there is another rare paragon of foreign culture in Warsaw: the Muslim Tartar Cemetery, a very small, mysterious place with huge metal gates, which is now the only functioning Muslim cemetery in Warsaw. Another Muslim cemetery is the Muslim Caucasian Cemetery in ul. Młynarska 60.

The Tartar Cemetery had been a burial place for the Muslim soldiers of the Russian army since 1867, then it became a cemetery for Tartars from the territories of Poland. During World War I Muslims who fell while in the Russian army were laid to rest here. The cemetery was almost totally destroyed during World War II and never regained its previous size.

In this cemetery you will find the graves of Aleksander Achmatowicz – minister of justice in the Crimean People’s Republic and the Republic of Central Lithuania, or Osman Achmatowicz – a professor at the University of Warsaw and chairman of the Committee for the Construction of the Warsaw Mosque.

Legend has it that a famous Polish actress, Jadwiga Smosarska, once visited the cemetery and put a bouquet on one of the graves. The dead man she honoured had apparently been an admirer of her who, when told she had not been interested in his love, had committed suicide.