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Memorial to the Sich Riflemen on Lysonia

openas of 2026-10-011916Halychyna

Memorial to the Sich Riflemen on Lysonia

Photo: Mykola Swarnyk · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

The fighting of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen in August–September 1916 near Berezhany, in which the regiment lost over two-thirds of its strength.

From 14 August to 30 September 1916 the regiment of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen under Anton Varyvoda — 47 officers and 1,685 riflemen — fought defensive battles on Lysonia hill near Potutory outside Berezhany against russian troops, covering the railway corridor; the fiercest fighting was on 2–4 September. According to the ESU, the regiment lost over 700 riflemen and officers killed, wounded and captured, among the captured Andrii Melnyk and Vasyl Kuchabsky; other sources give about 400 killed and 800 wounded and captured. In 1927 a riflemen's burial mound was raised on the hill; after 1939 the monument was destroyed, restored in 1990, in 1994 a cross of sorrow and glory was erected, and in 2016 a Chapel of the Intercession was built. Since 2006 the festival of riflemen's and insurgent song "Bells of Lysonia" has been held here every year.

An open memorial, access around the clock: the Berezhany–Potutory road, then a dirt track up the hill. Nearby is a neglected Austro-Hungarian cemetery of the First World War.

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Routes through this landmark