At the outbreak of World War I, many residents of Niepołomice were conscripted into the Austrian army, many joined the Piłsudski’s Legions and those who remained in Niepołomice created an Assistance Committee for soldiers leaving for the front. They were provided with assistance in the form of, among others, distributing hot meals in the trains, taking care of the soldiers’ families, delivering correspondence, dressing the wounded. A care facility was organized for the soldiers’ children and orphans in a one story building at Kościuszko street.
In the last days of November 1914, the 3 Army of Gen. Radko Dimitriev started to move to the west of Dunajec towards Raba, and then towards the south-eastern extremities of Cracow. After the capture of Bochnia and breaking through the line of Raba Tsarist troops invaded Niepołomice, their staff stationed at the monastery in Staniątki. There were fights on the line of Podłężanka and artillery fire on Niepołomice and Grabie in order to block the possibility of the Russian troops to cross the Vistula river. In the first days of December the Russian army won positions on the Kaim hill in Bieżanów. After a bloody fight on December 6, 1914, the Austro-Hungarian soldiers ousted the Russians, who had to go back to the area of Wieliczka. The ultimate success of the Łapanów-Limanowa operation forced the Russian troops to withdraw to the line of San, thus ending all fighting in the district of Wieliczka.
It is worth to make oneself acquainted with the places on the Trail of the Eastern Front of World War I in Małopolska, all the more that the Poles fought and died in it under the banners of the invaders. For Poles, the war was not theirs, not their own, but a battle of foreign countries in which they had to participate, in which they lost their lives. Undoubtedly Polish military effort, determination, courage and bravery led to the happy day of 11 November 1918.
A loop of the Trail of the Eastern Front of World War I, designated in the municipality of Niepołomice encompasses quiet resting places of soldiers:
War Cemetery No. 327, Niepołomice
War Cemetery No. 324, Wola Batorska
War Cemetery No. 325, Niepołomice - Sitowiec
