In October 1914, the Austro-Hungarian army was beaten by the Russians and forced to retreat towards Krakow. The front line then established itself more or less on the ridge of the Carpathian Mountains. 12.10.1914 r. The Polish Legions, fighting on the Austro-Hungarian side, made their way to Rafajłowa through the Rogodze Pass (later known as the Legion Pass). Soon the legionary army was divided into two parts; about 1,800 legionaries under the command of Lt. Col. Józef Haller remained in Rafajłowa. On the night of 23-24.01.1915. Russians in an attack near Rafajłowa clashed with Lt. Col. Haller's group. The Polish troops claimed victory with the loss of 5 killed, 16 wounded and 200 missing.

Legionaries killed in the fighting in Rafajłowa were buried in the cemetery near the church. Today this cemetery is a meadow with small hills marking the graves. However, the main monument has been preserved. It was fenced in with an iron fence on the initiative of Piotr Levitsky, a teacher from Nadvyrivna. The monument was restored in 1995 with funds from the Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Remembrance, and another restoration was carried out by the OPWiM Council in 2015.

The monument consists of a tapering obelisk, set on a high base. On the front side there is a free-standing inscription plate with an engraved Virtuti Militari cross and the names of the fallen legionaries. The whole is surrounded by a metal fence. The monument is made of light-coloured fine-grained sandstone, the inscription slab - of red sandstone in a terrazzo frame. The main inscription reads: "To the memory of 40 fallen legionaries 1914-1915 / Honour to the heroes!". The names of the fallen engraved on the horizontal slab: Dufrad Jan, Klakurka Andrzej, Machowski Karol, Kramowicz Kazimierz, Pieszko Władysław, Karpiński Justyn, Wdziołek Henryk, 29 NN. For some unknown reason, the number of names engraved on the horizontal slab of the monument does not agree with the number of the fallen given in the main inscription.