Gdów Cemetery ("Cmentarz") is adjacent to the field where the historic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Battle_of_Gd%C3%B3w" class="extiw" title="w:en:Battle of Gdów">Battle of Gdów</a> took place on 26 February 1846 and in which Polish 'insurgents', under the command of the absent Colonel Suchorzewski, fought for independence from Austria in the only battle of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Krak%C3%B3w_Uprising" class="extiw" title="w:en:Kraków Uprising">Kraków Uprising</a>.  This Uprising had been organized as integral to a more widespread campaign which included the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Greater_Poland_Uprising_(1846)" class="extiw" title="w:en:Greater Poland Uprising (1846)">Greater Poland Uprising (1846)</a> against the imperial forces of the partition authorities of Austria, Prussia and Russia.  The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Galician_slaughter" class="extiw" title="w:en:Galician slaughter">Peasant Uprising of 1846</a> was encouraged by the Austrians to counter the efforts of the ‘insurgents’ and the peasants aided the Austrian forces both in the slaughter of the battlefield and in the subsequent pursuit of the supporters of the Polish nationalists.  On top of a mound in the corner of the Cemetery is an emotive monument to the 154 ‘insurgents’ who were killed during the battle and were buried in three pits in the field before being interred together under the mound in 1906.
<p>Father Ludwik Kusionowicz, the parish priest in Gdów from 1842 who built the Cemetery Chapel in 1844 with the financial support of Eleonora Fihauser (née Lanckorońska) and who later became Dean of Wieliczka, chronicled the Battle of Gdów and also provided refuge for some supporters of the Polish nationalists who were fleeing the Austrian military and their peasant militia.   Ludwik’s "nephew" Sylwester was at that time living in Chochołow and training as a teacher and organist under <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pl:Jan_Kanty_Andrusikiewicz" class="extiw" title="w:pl:Jan Kanty Andrusikiewicz">Jan Kanty Andrusikiewicz (pl)</a> who was one of the leaders of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pl:Powstanie_chocho%C5%82owskie" class="extiw" title="w:pl:Powstanie chochołowskie">Chochołow Uprising (pl)</a> which took place on 21 February 1846, five days before the Battle of Gdów.  Around 1850 Sylwester moved to Gdów to run the first 'state school' in the district (in the former parish school building) and in spite of the efforts of the Austrian authorities to suppress Polish culture in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Kingdom_of_Galicia_and_Lodomeria" class="extiw" title="w:en:Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria">Galicia</a> it continued classes in the Polish language beyond the period of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:January_Uprising" class="extiw" title="w:en:January Uprising">January Uprising</a> (1863-1864) which extended across the lands controlled by the Russian Empire to the outskirts of Kraków.  Sylwester, who was father to a number of children, including Józef, Władysław and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Andrzej_Kusionowicz_Grody%C5%84ski" class="extiw" title="w:en:Andrzej Kusionowicz Grodyński">Andrzej</a>, was also the organist at the Church and around 1860 moved into the old church house (to #39 from house #37).  Sylwester Kusionowicz, born on Czchów in 1828 to parents Egidius and Maria (nee Karnikiewicz), passed away in 1877 and is buried alongside the Cemetery Chapel, where his "uncle" Ludwik was later buried, in a prominent grave watched over by a beautiful statue of Mary (sculpted by Edward Stehlik) which also poignantly looks out over the field of battle.
</p><p>The mound on which the 1846 monument was erected was created over a number of years by members of the local fire brigade and it was under the third president of the Gdów brigade, Szymon Boguta, that the mound was completed and the monument dedicated.  Szymon was also the organist at the Church of Gdów and was married to Walerja Kusionowicz, daughter of Sylwester.
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<span style="color:blue;"><i>The <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Scotch_Mist/Poland" class="mw-redirect" title="User:Scotch Mist/Poland">Scotch Mist Gallery</a> contains many photographs of historic buildings, monuments and memorials of Poland.</i></span>
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