Debate over whether to lay Polish president Lech Kaczynski to rest in a cathedral alongside monarchs, heroes and even a saint has spilled into cyberspace and ruptured national unity since his death.
Mr Kaczynski, who in life was a deeply divisive figure, and his wife Maria are to be buried on Sunday in the cathedral crypt of Wawel castle in Krakow. US President Barack Obama leads a host of world leaders set to attend.
The couple have been lying in state in Warsaw since Tuesday, drawing tens of thousands of mourners from across Poland to pay their last respects. But hundreds also gathered in Krakow late on Tuesday chanting "Not in Wawel" and an opposition group on social networking site Facebook had by yesterday evening drawn over 35,000 fans.
"We're all mourning the tragic death of the presidential couple, but we mustn't go overboard. Wawel is a special historical place. It's where the monarchs of Poland and other great Poles lie. Let it remain so," organisers said on the page.
An online petition to the authorities on the site petycje.pl had already drawn over 11,000 signatures against the plan - and almost 500 in favour.
"The Wawel's no place for a lousy President," wrote Ada Kowalska. But Malwina Szeliga called opponents a "disgrace".
The powerfully symbolic location for the burial was chosen by Mr Kaczynski's family, officials said. His identical twin Jaroslaw is leader of Poland's conservative opposition.
The nationalist and deeply Catholic Kaczynski is the first head of state to die since Poland's post-World War II communist regime fell in 1989.
Communist-era leaders were not buried in church and most leaders of the two-decade pre-war republic were laid to rest in a Warsaw crypt.
Left-wing politician Tomasz Nalecz said he was "surprised" by the Wawel move.
"It sows division and controversy," he told the news channel TVN24.
Oscar-winning film director Andrzej Wajda also waded in. In an open letter on the website of the liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza, he called Mr Kaczynski an "ordinary and good man" but said the decision was "misplaced".
Mr Kaczynski's stance on issues including gay rights, the death penalty, the European Union and flushing out purported communist-era agents angered liberal former allies from the pre-1989 opposition, as well as the left.
But Krakow's left-leaning mayor Jacek Majchrowski told the Polska newspaper: "We're burying our President, who died in the line of duty".
The 96 victims, including other senior officials, perished when their plane crashed in fog in the Russian city of Smolensk before a nearby ceremony for thousands of Polish officers massacred by the Soviets in 1940.
Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz said Kaczynski "should lie with those who served the nation", the PAP news agency reported.
Krakow was Poland's capital until 1596.
Among the sovereigns in the cathedral is Jadwiga, a late 14th century ruler declared a saint by Polish Pope John Paul II in 1997.
Poland's monarchy was snuffed out in the late 18th century when Russia, Prussia and Austria carved up the country.
Krakow remained an autonomous statelet until the Austrians grabbed it in the mid-19th century. But their relatively benign rule enabled Poles to keep burying their heroes in the cathedral.
For example, Tadeusz Kosciuszko, who led a failed revolt against Russia and Prussia in 1794, was moved to the Wawel after dying in Switzerland in 1817.