Pomník padlých v I. sv. válce

The World War I Memorial in Sezemice stands on the town's highest point, a hill long known to locals as Kozí vrch, right beside the Chapel of the Virgin Mary and its adjoining cemetery. For over a century this spot has served as the community's focal point for remembering the men of Sezemice and its neighboring villages who never returned from the Great War.

When was the memorial built?

The monument was erected in 1922, paid for by the town of Sezemice, and unveiled on 28 October of that year — the anniversary of Czechoslovak independence. Its plaques carry the names of men from Sezemice and the villages later joined to the town who died fighting in the ranks of the Austro-Hungarian army or in the Russian, French and Italian legions. In total, 118 men connected to this area failed to return from the war.

Why does the memorial contain soil from France?

An inscription on the monument's base states that it holds earth brought from the Czechoslovak Military Cemetery at La Targette in France, where Czechoslovak soldiers who fell both in 1914–1918 and later in the Second World War are buried. This symbolic gesture tied the town's own grief to the fate of legionnaires who died far from home.

Who was Karel Bezdíčka?

In 1925, the local branch of the Czechoslovak Legionnaires' Association unveiled a separate monument in Sezemice dedicated to one of the town's own — Karel Bezdíčka, standard-bearer of the famous "Nazdar" company of the French Foreign Legion. Bezdíčka was born in 1888 in Vienna, but his parents were both from Sezemice and the family returned there shortly after his birth, so it was in Sezemice that he grew up. He volunteered for the Foreign Legion in Bayonne and carried the Nazdar company's flag on the front in Champagne. He died a heroic death on 9 May 1915 during the attack at La Targette, reportedly among the first to reach the German second-line trenches before falling there.

How did the monument survive the Nazi occupation?

The story of Bezdíčka's monument itself is almost as dramatic as the story of the man it honors. During the German occupation, when anything associated with the Czechoslovak legions was persecuted, residents of Sezemice hid the monument by carefully lowering it into a pit roughly two meters deep and covering it with tar paper to keep it safe underground through the dangerous years. Heavy vehicles later passed over the site, making it even harder to trace, yet after the war the monument was dug up and, to everyone's surprise, found to have survived almost undamaged.

What can visitors see there today?

Today the two memorials stand together on the hill by the chapel: the main monument to those who fell between 1914 and 1918 — later extended with the names of victims from 1939–1945 — and the separate monument to Karel Bezdíčka. Together they bring the story of an entire community together with the fate of one man whose courage at La Targette has been remembered here for a hundred years.

Frequently asked questions

Where exactly is the memorial located? On the highest point of Sezemice, a hill once called Kozí vrch, next to the Chapel of the Virgin Mary and its cemetery.

When was the main memorial unveiled? On 28 October 1922, the anniversary of Czechoslovak independence.

How many people does the memorial commemorate? 118 men from Sezemice and neighboring villages who died in World War I, plus victims from the 1939–1945 period added later.

Who was Karel Bezdíčka? The standard-bearer of the Foreign Legion's "Nazdar" company, a Sezemice native who died on 9 May 1915 at La Targette, France.

What makes this memorial unusual? It contains soil from the Czechoslovak military cemetery at La Targette, and it stands beside a legionnaire's monument that survived buried underground during the Nazi occupation.