At the parish cemetery in Jablunkov, along the road towards 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 soldiers of the 1st 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 1st Brigade of the Polish Legions, evacuated from Kraków after the Russian occupation of Eastern Galicia, halted in Jablunkov and nearby Návsí.
The town hosted the Legion headquarters, field hospitals and an officers’ training school; the Military Department of the Supreme National Committee, under Władysław Sikorski, also operated here.
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 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 the painter Alojzy Talarek, in February 1916; and Śniegoń in August 1918.
Over their graves there initially stood a simple stone cross.

Only in a free Poland did the idea take shape 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, wings outstretched, symbolising reborn independence.
On 1 November 1931, the unveiling drew 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, a member of the Polish Parliament and a 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 COMPATRIOTS.

WAGNER WITOLD, private, 1st Polish Legions Regiment / † 1 December 1914; SKÓRA ZYGMUNT, private, 1st Polish Legions Regiment / † 20 December 1914; ZACHARA WILHELM, private, 1st Polish Legions Regiment / † 13 January 1915; TALAREK JAN, senior private, 1st Polish Legions Regiment / † 3 February 1916; ŚNIEGOŃ FRANCISZEK, private, 1st Polish Legions Regiment / † 22 August 1918.

In 1997, the monument underwent renovation through the Circle of Polish Veterans in the Czech Republic, with support from the Republic of Poland.
A new inscription was added at the base of the plaque: 

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

In 2024–2025, further conservation preserved the original 1931 eagle sculpture rather than replacing it.

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.