Nearly 100,000 grieving Poles packed Krakow Sunday for the burial of president Lech Kaczynski and his wife beside ancient kings and heroes, though Europe's air travel crisis kept many world leaders away.
US President Barack Obama and dozens of other dignitaries were forced by the volcanic ash cloud to abandon their plans to attend, but Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev arrived in a show of solidarity after the April 10 plane crash in Russia that killed the couple and 94 others on board.
Mourners applauded the Kaczynskis, tossed flowers and waved red and white Polish flags as their cortege weaved slowly through the narrow streets of Poland's former royal capital, after their bodies were flown by military aircraft from Warsaw.
Sirens wailed to mark the start of the funeral mass at the Gothic Basilica of Our Lady in Krakow's central square, where huge crowds had gathered to see the service relayed live on giant screens.
Despite his reputation as an often divisive nationalist, Kaczynski and his wife Maria were to be laid to rest in the cathedral crypt of Krakow's hilltop Wawel castle, alongside Poland's monarchs, national heroes, saints and poets.
The funeral marks the climax of an outpouring of grief since the crash, which killed 96 people including the military's top brass, the central bank governor and a string of lawmakers from across the political divide.
"It's an exceptional moment. Poles have to be here," said Maria Kurowska, the mayor of the town of Jaslo, who was in the crowd. Her town paid for three coaches to take mourners to the funeral.
Police said there were nearly 100,000 people, around half of them outside the basilica and the rest on Blonie Meadow, a huge square which once accommodated some two million people during a mass by Polish pope John Paul II.
It came a day after more than 100,000 mourners massed in Warsaw's main Pilsudski square on Saturday for an emotional public memorial service for all the victims of the crash.
But the Icelandic volcano eruption that has disrupted European air travel also cast its shadow over Sunday's funeral.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Britain's Prince Charles and South Korean Prime Minister Chung Un-Chan were among dozens of dignitaries who cancelled because of the travel chaos.
Medvedev flew in from Moscow, in a further sign of a thawing of relations between Russia and Poland in the wake of the accident.
Kaczynski's Tupolev Tu-154 jet slammed into a forest near Smolensk in western Russia while heading for a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet forces.
Leaders of many countries close to Poland, including the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, arrived in Krakow by road and rail. Obama sent his regrets in a White House statement, adding that "Michelle and I continue to have the Polish people in our thoughts and prayers, and will support them in any way I can as they recover from this terrible tragedy."
Poles lining the streets of Krakow said the foreign no-shows did not detract from the solemnity of the day.
"It looks like a higher power is at work but nothing is keeping us away," said Anna Zajac, 28, who came with her husband and two children from a suburb of Krakow. After the funeral mass the coffins will be taken on gun carriages to Wawel cathedral for the burial service and a 21-gun artillery salute.
They will be lowered into a sarcophagus inscribed with their names and a cross. It will lie next to that of Poland's revered independence leader, Jozef Pilsudski.