Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów The Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów ( , " Cemetery of Eaglets " , " Orlat Cemetery " ) is a memorial and a burial place for the Poles and their allies who died in Lviv ( ) during the hostilities of the Polish - Ukrainian War and Polish - Soviet War between 1918 and 1920 . The complex is a part of the city ' s historic Lychakiv Cemetery . There are about 3000 graves in that part of the cemetery ; some from the Lwów Eaglets young militia volunteers , after whom that part of the cemetery is named . It was one of the most famous necropolis es of the interwar Poland . It was neglected after World War II by the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic , and at one time damaged with a bulldozer . Since the fall of communism , the cemetery has seen constant rebuilding and refurbishment and continues to be one of the principal tourist attractions of Lviv . In the Second Polish Republic . In 1918 – 1919 , Poles and Ukrainians fought over the territory of Eastern Galicia that included Lviv ; with Poland defeating the Western Ukrainian People ' s Republic . A year later , another war , between Poland and the Russian SFSR , was fought around the city . In the aftermath , the city ended up being part of interwar Poland , and the Polish authorities decided to construct a memorial to the Poles and their allies who died in the 1918 – 1920 hostilities in that region . The necropolis complex was designed by Rudolf Indruch , an architecture student from the Lviv Polytechnic whose project won the competition . The most visible element was a domed chapel which towers over the tombs underneath . Exhumed remains of the 72 fighters were put in catacombs located between the chapel and the tombs . In addition to Polish fighters , this part of the cemetery also has graves and monuments to American ( pilots from the Kościuszko Squadron ) and French volunteers who fought on the Polish side , two monuments were dedicated to those Polish foreign allies . Underneath , an inscription " Mortui sunt ut liberi vivamus " ( " They died so we could live free " ) was engraved on a semi - circular colonnade monument . A triumphal arch was flanked by two stone lions . The necropolis was never finished ; its construction continued until the outbreak of the Second World War . Out of almost 3 , 000 tombs , 300 were dedicated to the Eaglets , as the young Polish defenders of the city from 1918 are known . In 1925 the ashes of one of the unknown defenders of Lwów were transferred to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw . Wartime devastation and aftermath . After the Soviet invasion of Poland and the events of World War II , the city became part of Soviet Ukraine , and the Polish historical monuments located at the cemetery were devastated or neglected . The stone lions , the columnade , the monuments to foreign troops were removed . Up to 1971 many of the sculptures were destroyed ; the cemetery of Lviv Eaglets was completely destroyed and turned into a truck depot . Soviets attempted to destroy the triumphal arch with tank s . In the 1970s , majority of the tombs were razed with bulldozers . The Lviv Eaglets section was , however , not reopened for several decades , as the fact that many of the people buried there fought on the Polish side against the Ukrainians during the Polish - Ukrainian War generated some controversy . The issue has resurfaced several times in the Polish - Ukrainian relations ; however , in 1989 the reconstruction works have begun , carried by local Polonia and Polish workers working temporarily in Lviv . Eventually the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lviv was reopened on 24 June 2005 when the Lviv City Council , which initially resisted the opening , eventually changed its mind , following Polish support for Ukraine ' s Orange Revolution ( 2004 ) . President of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski and President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko , who attended the opening ceremony , agreed that the reconstruction and official opening represents a major improvement in Polish - Ukrainian relations .