The Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów, also called the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów, is a separate part of the Lychakiv Cemetery in Lwów. Walking along the paths of this necropolis, one will find graves not only of participants in the Polish-Ukrainian war for Lviv, but also of those who died in 1918-1920 or those who died later.

The defence of Lwów - the commemoration of the fallen Poles

Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv - one of the largest Polish national necropolises - underwent expansion in the interwar years. On the southern slopes of Lychakiv Hill, a special section was set aside to house Polish soldiers killed in the battle for the city against the Ukrainians in 1918-1919.

Polish youths took part in these battles, as most of the adult men were in the army or prisoner-of-war camps at the time. Of the more than 400 fallen, 120 were schoolchildren and 76 were students. These youngest defenders of the city were called the "Lwów Eaglets". After the eastern borders of the Polish Republic were established and Polish power was consolidated in the "always faithful" city, decisions were made to build a cemetery-panton of the defenders of Lwów. A competition for the design of the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lviv was organised, the winner of which was Rudolf Indruch (1892-1927), a Czech-Slovak student of the Faculty of Architecture at the Lviv Polytechnic, who had fought for Lviv on the Polish side.

Unique design - unique layout of the Cemetery of the Eaglets

Indruch took advantage of the specific characteristics of the uneven terrain, designing a terraced layout of the whole. The dominant element was the chapel of the Defenders of Lviv built at the highest point of the cemetery. It featured an altar with a statue of the Virgin Mary and Child Jesus by the sculptor Luna Drexler (1882-1933), sister of the famous Lviv urban planner Ignacy Drexler. Slightly lower, in front of the chapel, the so-called catacombs were planned, in frontal view enclosing the chapel on both sides. These consist of eight crypts, in which particularly meritorious people chosen by a special commission are laid to rest.

Between them, on the line of the chapel, a well with a pool was placed. In front of the catacombs stood a monumental Monument of Glory consisting of a central arch-gate, two side pylons and connecting columnar wings. The pylons bore the names of the sites of the battles for Lviv. The entire complex is surrounded by graves divided into quarters designed on a fan-shaped plan.

The entire complex is arranged in an axial arrangement, emphasised by stairs that rise terraced towards the chapel. Among the interesting elements of the Cemetery of the Eagles are the monument to the French and the monument to the American aviators, flanking the catacombs symmetrically. The monument to the American aviators has the form of an angel aviator against the background of a pyramid, the monument to the French - a French infantryman supported by a rifle.

Construction and burials at the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów

Construction work began in 1922 (the cornerstone for the chapel was consecrated on 26 May). Construction took several years, due in part to technical problems related to the instability of the ground. The official opening ceremony took place on 26 May 1938, attended among others by Marshall Edward Rydz-Śmigły. Unfortunately, the designer of the cemetery did not live to see the opening - he died of tuberculosis in 1927. Defenders who died in the inter-war years were buried in a separate part of the cemetery. The last defender buried here was Władysław Preisner. His funeral took place on 9 August 1939.

Sepulchral architecture - the most outstanding Polish example of the interwar period

Pilgrims from afar should come to these graves to learn love for their Homeland. People of little faith should come here to be filled with steadfast faith, people of little spirit to be filled with heroism. And since students in uniforms lie here, this cemetery is like a school, the strangest school, where light-haired and blue-eyed children teach grey-haired ones that life grows best from sacrificial death," wrote Kornel Makuszyński.

The Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów is undoubtedly the most outstanding example of Polish sepulchral architecture of the interwar years. It has clear modernist features in its monumental design, particularly oriented towards ancient themes (the architecture of ancient Rome). The inspiration of ancient models is particularly evident in the form of the gate of the Monument of Glory - it was resolved like a triumphal arch with simplified, block-like shapes, with the Latin inscription Mortui sunt ut liberi vivamus ('They fell so that we could live free'). In front of the arch stand two stone lions holding shields. The Roman influence is also evident in the architecture of the chapel, designed as an ancient tolos (a temple on a circular plan, surrounded by columns). In this case, one can also guess inspiration from the Renaissance Roman Tempietto, designed by Donato Bramante. The austere, arcaded architecture of the catacombs completed the whole. In the niches between the arches of the arcades, statues of angels with Virtuti Militari Crosses were placed.

Post-war fate of the Cemetery of Eaglets

In the post-war years, the Cemetery of the Eaglets underwent massive degradation. For political reasons, it was profaned and subjected to gradual annihilation, and worshipping the fallen was forbidden. The greatest damage was caused by a deliberate devastation action by the Soviet authorities in 1971, carried out with tanks and bulldozers. A street was laid out through part of the necropolis. This action was aimed at liquidating one of the largest monuments of "bourgeois Poland".

It was only after 1989 that the Lviv campo santo was rebuilt and reconstructed, although - as a result of difficult arrangements with the Ukrainian side - it differed from its original appearance, e.g. the reconstruction of the Tuscan columns of the Monument of Glory was abandoned. The ceremonial opening of the reconstructed cemetery took place on 24 June 2005.