Also known as the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lviv, it was established in the 1920s on the initiative of the Society for the Guarding of the Graves of Polish Heroes, set up in 1919 thanks to Maria Ciszkowa, the mother of one of those who fell during the defense of Lviv.

In the area designated in the eastern part of Lychakiv Cemetery at that time rested the bodies of heroes killed during the Polish-Bolshevik war of 1919-1921 and during the defense of Lviv in November 1918. Among them can be found the names of nearly three thousand young people - known as the Lviv Eaglets - who died during the Polish-Ukrainian fighting.

In September 1924 the ceremonial opening of the cemetery took place. A few months later, monuments to American and French airmen who served in the Polish army and died during the battles against the Bolsheviks in 1919-1921 were unveiled in the necropolis.

On August 25, 1971, Red Army tanks and bulldozers entered the cemetery, with the help of which the colonnade was destroyed and graves were covered up. Tombstones were also broken, fragments of which were later used to build a monument to Lenin in Lviv.

However, the stone lions that stood at the foot of the triumphal arch managed to be saved, as they were taken to the outskirts of the city.

After World War II, the cemetery was repeatedly looted and vandalized. At one point there was even a garbage dump within its boundaries. The necropolis functioned until the early 1970s, when - in accordance with the decision of the Soviet authorities - it was razed to the ground.

There were several attempts to reconstruct the cemetery, but each was quickly halted by the Ukrainian authorities. Only at the beginning of the 21st century did the Polish and Ukrainian sides reach an agreement on the matter and jointly began work on the reconstruction of the necropolis. Its ceremonial opening took place in 2005 with the participation of Presidents Aleksandr Kwasniewski and Viktor Yushchenko.

In December 2015, thanks to the involvement of the Cultural Heritage Foundation and the Society for the Care of Military Graves in Lviv, two stone lions were returned to the cemetery.
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Lviv residents Barbara Baczynska, Anna Gordiyevska and Veronika Torba give a tour of the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwow. Bozena Markowska's broadcast “Remaining in memory - the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwow”. (PR, 04.11.2002)

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