World War I cemetery No. 27 in Bączal Dolny belongs to the Second Jaslo Cemetery District. The designer of this military necropolis, built in 1916-1917, wasViennese architect Hans Jäger. Buried here in the shade of the trees are 20 Austrians, 29 Germans and 97 Russians killed on May 5, 1915. An inscription in German on the main monument in the fence line reads: "In its spell of peace the forest gently surrounds us who fell in battle as we lived in battle" The cemetery is one of 90 cemeteries from this period scattered across Galicia at the time This is a sad reminder of one of the largest and most important battles fought during World War I on Polish territory. The Battle of Gorlice, because of its significance, is called the Gorlice Breakthrough and is increasingly referred to as Little Verdun. The positional fighting near Gorlice lasted almost half a year, but the decisive clash began with a surprise attack by German and Austro-Hungarian troops on May 2, 1915. On May 2-5, 1915, the Russian front was broken. About 20,000 soldiers died in the fighting It is also worth visiting the cemeteries of this period in Swiecany, Siepietnica, Slawecin, Harklowa and Jabłonica. The cemeteries in Harklowa and Slawęcin are on the "Route of the Eastern Front of World War I," which runs through eight provinces, viz: Warmińsko-Mazurskie, Podlaskie, Mazowieckie, Świętokrzyskie, Lubelskie, Łódzkie, Małopolskie and Podkarpackie.
28.08.2013
