The cemetery is located in the town of Águia Branca (White Eagle), which presents itself as an example of a failed colonisation campaign during the Second Republic. It rests with Polish settlers who arrived in the Brazilian state of Holy Spirit (Espírito Santo) in the 1930s to cultivate coffee trees.

The cemetery, established in 1929, only buries the deceased who had Polish roots (the land belongs to the Association of White Eagle Poles - Associção Polonesa de Águia Branca). To reach the necropolis, one has to climb a high hill overlooking the town of Águia Branca, which offers a majestic panorama of the mysterious boulder mountains, called 'pedras' by the locals.

Conditions of colonisation

Organised colonisation in the area was carried out by the Warsaw Colonisation Society, whose representatives concluded a settlement and colonisation agreement with the governor of the state of Espírito Santo in 1928. Under it, the Polish company was granted a concession for 50,000 hectares of land in the Colatina municipium (administrative-territorial subdivision). In return, it undertook to bring in and settle 1,800 Polish families within eight years. The Polish government granted permission for colonisation on 27 February 1929.

The settlements of Águia Branca (White Eagle) and Monte Claro (Jasna Gora) were established on land owned by the Colonisation Society. Polish settlers also colonised areas a few dozen kilometres away from the centre - in the region of São Gabriel da Palha and Vila Valério. The Society intended to bring only farming families, which was to guarantee the permanence of the settlement.

The settlers themselves paid exorbitant ocean crossing fees, amounting to: 1,000 zlotys/adult, 500 zlotys/child aged 5-10, 250 zlotys/child aged 1-5. For comparison, it is worth remembering that in the reality of the 1930s, the average salary of an industrial worker was about 150 zlotys/month.

Upon arrival, each family was given a plot of land of 25 ha. Families with more than six able-bodied people (aged 13-50) were given 50 ha. The plot had to be paid for in cash or in instalments spread over six years. Families with 'exemplary' behaviour during the journey were eligible for a discount on the purchase price.

Settlers were given plots of land covered with virgin forest. Until a house was built, they could live in barracks prepared by the colony administration. They had open credit at the society's shop for food, seedlings, tools and all other necessities of life. The colony had its own by-laws setting out the rights and obligations of settlers, some of its provisions placed many restrictions on settlers. The colonists were allowed to grow only those crops indicated by the administration, they could not arbitrarily leave the plot, they could professionally engage in trade and crafts (except for settler-craftsmen), the administration had the right of first refusal to buy land and granted concessions for alcohol production. The administration provided free medical assistance, basic medical supplies, and was obliged to run a school and build a people's house with a reading room. Settlers who broke the regulations faced financial penalties and, as a last resort, the expulsion of 'the colonist and his family from the colony community'. After several years of action, the Emigration Syndicate placed an advertisement for the colony in the Curitiba newspaper "Lud":

"The average farm of a colonist constitutes: A dwelling house with 2 rooms of the Brazilian type, wooden clad in clay, covered with shingles with a floor. 10 ha of cleared forest, of which 7 ha under cultivation and 2 ha of pasture. Coffee plantation of about 5,000, half of which are fruiting, the plantation is constantly expanding as coffee gives the best income. Livestock consists of 2 cows and a calf, 1 mule, 8 pigs and several dozen poultry. Some colonists own 20 ha of cleared forest, plantations of more than 10,000 coffee bushes, 5 cows, 20 pigs. They process some of the crops themselves - from cassava they make meal and porridge from sugar cane zapadura (bronze sugar) and alcohol, they own maize and rice mills."

Green hell

Organised and structured in almost every aspect of life, the settlements never reached the planned size or success. Among other things, the outbreak of the Second World War and, above all, the hot climate in the region stood in the way. Growing coffee trees in such conditions proved too onerous for many Polish peasants. By 1933, the Colonisation Society had managed to bring in just 300 families. Of these, many fled the colony and made their way to Parana, where the climate was milder.

"After a couple of months of facing poverty, misery and disease, after wasting their last property, after the sad sight of crops, after all-round misfortunes and setbacks, the Águia Branca colony in Espirito Santo presented itself to me grey and even black. I became convinced that I wasn't suited to the local area, that I was a European who couldn't take to a different climate. I saw European plants: cabbages, beetroots, carrots, potatoes, growing poorly and failing to mature, dying. Certain and convinced that the same fate awaited me and my family, I made up my mind to escape this green hell as far as possible. This decision was born in me somehow during my four-month stay in the colony, and after two months of illness [...] I was joined by four other families, none of whom wanted to die in Espirito Santo", recalled one of the settlers in a memoir submitted for a competition organised by the Institute of Social Economy in 1936.

White Eagle Cemetery

The most persistent settlers remained in place. Their descendants still live today on the land that once belonged to the Colonisation Society. Many of them still remember the origins of their ancestors; a few have still retained their Polish speech. Graves with engraved Polish names in the White Eagle Cemetery bear witness to the Slavic roots of the town of Águia Branca. In one of them lie the mortal remains of the colony administrator, Walery Kaszorowski, who died in 1952.

Within the cemetery there is a brick chapel of Our Lady of Jasna Gora, built thanks to the efforts of Father Zygmunt Szwajkiewicz TChr (1916-2001), chaplain of the Polish community in Rio de Janeiro. Inside is a copy of the image of Our Lady of Jasna Gora. Next to the chapel are two plaques commemorating successive anniversaries of Polish settlement. The plaque marking the fiftieth anniversary bears an inscription in Portuguese which, translated, reads: 'Fifty years. Polish colonisation in Espírito Santo. Homage of the population of São Gabriel da Palha to Polish immigrants. São Gabriel da Palha - Águia Branca, 14 October 1979, municipal prefect Dario Martinelli".

In the cemetery, between the graves stands a brick cross commemorating the deceased settlers. On the pedestal is a plaque with an inscription in Portuguese, which, translated, reads: 'In memory of their compatriots who died in Brazil, the Poles offer this memorial. 1954".