Located in the Żoliborz district, it was established in 1912 as the burial ground of the soldiers from the Tsarist military garrison. Soldiers who fell in World War I, as well as those fighting in the November Uprising (1830-1831), January Uprising (1863-1864), Wielkopolskie Uprising (1919) and the three Silesian Uprisings (1919-1921) were later buried at the cemetery. Later, soldiers fighting in the defense of Warsaw in 1939 and those fallen in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising were laid to rest at the Military Cemetery as well. A monument, an obelisk called Gloria Victis (Glory to the Vanquished), commemorates those fallen in the Warsaw Uprising, and every year on August 1 (the anniversary of the Uprising), ceremonies are held there.
Many symbolic graves and monuments were also erected, among them one dedicated to Polish officers murdered by the Soviets in 1940 in the Katyń Massacre. Apart from military figures, many famous Poles are buried at the Military Cemetery: writer Zofia Nałkowska, poet Jan Brzechwa, sculptor Xawery Dunikowski, actor Adolf Dymsza, writer Stanisław Grochowiak, politicians Jacek Kuroń and Bronisław Geremek and writer Ryszard Kapuściński to name just a few.