At the parish cemetery in Jablunkov, along the road leading toward the mountain pass and the Slovak border, a tall monument rises against an old stone wall.
On its granite pedestal, a Polish eagle carved from grey sandstone spreads its wings wide - just as it did on the caps of the soldiers of the First Brigade of the Polish Legions.

The history of this place intertwines with one of the most moving episodes in the story of the Legions.
In November 1914, units of the First Brigade of the Polish Legions, evacuated from Kraków after the Russian occupation of Eastern Galicia, stopped in Jablunkov and nearby Návsí.
The town hosted the Legion headquarters, field hospitals, and an officers’ training school.
Here also operated the Military Department of the Supreme National Committee, commanded by Władysław Sikorski.
For several months, the surrounding area pulsed with wartime life - but also with hope.

It was here, on Christmas Eve 1914, that Józef Piłsudski shared supper with his soldiers and the local inhabitants of Návsí, addressing them with the words:

“I greet you, Polish soldiers, on a day when everyone wishes to be with family.
Among you, I feel as if I am among my closest family.”

In the local hospitals, wounded and sick legionaries of the 1st Infantry Regiment died - young men, often barely twenty years old.
They were buried in Jablunkov, Cieszyn, Bohumín, and Fryštát.
Those who found their final rest in Jablunkov were: Witold Wagner, Zygmunt Skóra, Wilhelm Zachara, Jan Talarek, and Franciszek Śniegoń.
The first three died during the winter of 1914–1915, Talarek - a senior private and brother of painter Alojzy Talarek - in February 1916, and Śniegoń in August 1918.
Over their graves initially stood a simple stone cross.

Only in free Poland was the idea born to erect a permanent and dignified memorial.
The new monument was built on the initiative of Father Franciszek Moroń, former parish priest of Jablunkov, and funded by the Ministry of Public Works of the Republic of Poland.
It was made of granite and sandstone, with an eagle of outstretched wings symbolizing the reborn independence.
The unveiling ceremony took place on 1 November 1931, attended by crowds of Poles from across the region, the clergy, officers of both the Polish Army and the Czechoslovak Army, as well as the Polish Consul in Moravian Ostrava, Dr. Karol Ripa, who ended his speech with the words:

“Polish people! When times are hard,
when troubling news fills your heart with anxiety,
remember that the spirit of the Polish Legions has already entered the nation;
and when pain tears your heart apart,
come to this monument and listen to the call of its golden horn.”

After the national anthems and Chopin’s Funeral March, Dr. Jan Buzek, member of the Polish Parliament and scholar of Silesia, spoke of the fallen legionaries, quoting the song:

“Sleep, comrade, in your dark grave - may Poland appear to you in your dreams.”

The inscription on the memorial plaque reads:

IN MEMORY OF THE POLISH LEGIONARIES / FIGHTERS FOR THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE HOMELAND / THEIR COUNTRYMEN

WAGNER WITOLD, private, 1st Polish Legions Regiment / † 1 Dec. 1914
SKÓRA ZYGMUNT, private, 1st Polish Legions Regiment / † 20 Dec. 1914
ZACHARA WILHELM, private, 1st Polish Legions Regiment / † 13 Jan. 1915
TALAREK JAN, senior private, 1st Polish Legions Regiment / † 3 Feb. 1916
ŚNIEGOŃ FRANCISZEK, private, 1st Polish Legions Regiment / † 22 Aug. 1918

Many years later, in 1997, the monument underwent renovation thanks to the Circle of Polish Combatants in the Czech Republic, supported by the Republic of Poland.
A new inscription was then added at the base of the plaque:

RENOVATION 1997 / OTTO CIENCIALA / CIRCLE OF POLISH COMBATANTS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC / FUNDED BY THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND

Conservation work was carried out again in 2024–2025, preserving the original 1931 eagle sculpture, rather than replacing it with a new one.

Polish Legionaries Who Died and Were Buried in Cieszyn Silesia

List of the deceased after: J. Osek, K. Stepan, Lista strat Legionów Polskich 1914–1918, Kraków 2006.