Attractions of Lviv

The Museum of Computer Technology in Lviv is located in the basement of the Scientific Library of Ivan Franko Lviv National University.

The interactive exhibition is devoted to the history of computers and video games of the 1980s and 1990s. More than a hundred devices are presented, most of which are in working condition.

In particular, you can see the technology of the USA (Apple, Atari, Commodore, IBM), the UK (Acorn, Sinclair, Tangerine Computer Systems), the countries of the former Eastern Bloc ("Pravets", Mera, Robotron), the USSR ("Elektronika BK") and of Ukraine (PK-01 "Lviv", "Search", "Orel" BK08).

The monument to King Danylo Halytskyi, the founder of Lviv and the creator of the Galician-Volyn state, was erected for the 745th anniversary of the city.

Prince Danylo Romanovych from the Galician branch of the Rurik family united the country by force, defeating the regiments of Hungarian and Polish feudal lords, as well as Galician boyars in 1245.

The project of the monument to King Danylo Halytskyi in Lviv was developed by the sculptors Yarych and Romanovych, as well as the architect Churylyk. The monument is a bronze equestrian figure on a granite pedestal.

The church and monastery of the Discalced Carmelites of the Mother of God of Hromnycha was founded in Lviv by Yakub Sobeskyi, the father of King Yan Sobeskyi.

Construction began in 1644 and continued until the end of the century. The monastery complex with the church belonged to the Order of Discalced Carmelites until 1792.

The Baroque-style temple has the shape of a Latin cross, and its forms resemble the Church of Santa Susanna in Rome.

Now it belongs to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church as the Church of the Ascension of the Lord.

The Dominican Cathedral is one of the most significant baroque monuments in Lviv.

The cells of the Dominican monastery date back to the 16th century. In 1559, Princess Halshka Ostrozka, the heiress of the powerful Volyn family of Ostrozkyi, hid here from the magnate Lukash Hurka, who forcibly forced her into marriage. In 1701, Tsar Petro I signed a treaty here on the military alliance of Russia and Poland against Sweden.

Until the 18th century, the building of the Dominican church was Gothic. In 1792-1798, the architect Jan de Witte reconstructed it at the expense of Yuzef Potocki, the facades were decorated by master Sebastyan Fesinher. The interior contains a number of valuable works of art: alabaster tombstones of the 16th century, a marble monument to Arthur Grotger.

During Soviet times, the Dominican Cathedral housed a museum of atheism. Today it is the Greek Catholic Church of the Holy Eucharist. Part of the collection of monuments of sacred art of the Lviv Museum of the History of Religion is exhibited in the dungeons. Organ music concerts are held.

The dungeon of the Garrison Holy Apostles Peter and Paul Church is a complex of premises under one of the largest churches in Lviv, the history of which begins in the 17th century. Remains of houses of the 14th-15th centuries, which were located on the site of the temple before its construction, have been preserved here.

Until the end of the 18th century, the dungeons were used as crypts for the burial of priests and donors to the temple. Hetman Stanislav-Jan Yablonovskyi, the defender of Lviv from the Tatars and the hero of the Battle of Vienna in 1683, found his resting place here.

Currently, 10 halls are available for inspection. The exhibition tells about the history of the Garrison Church and the development of Lviv from the 14th to the 18th centuries. In particular, a layout of Lviv during princely times is presented. Restoration work and design of new expositions are ongoing.

Every Saturday at 16:00 a comprehensive tour of the dungeons and the upper part of the Garrison Temple is held. Individual tours of the temple are available by prior arrangement.

Art Center "Dzyga" in Lviv is the residence of the creative association "Dzyga" - an organization of artists, public figures and entrepreneurs. Active since 1993.

The gallery presents modern art. Jazz and blues concerts are held every night in the club.

At the gallery, there is a cafe "Pid klepsydroyu" - a meeting place of Lviv bohemians with a democratic and creative atmosphere.

One of the buildings on Pekarska street, which has a small architectural feature - one of its corners is extremely sharp, was nicknamed the "flat house" in Lviv. Thanks to this, when viewed from a certain angle, when the faces are hidden from the observer, the illusion is created that the house is flat, that is, it has only one wall - the facade.

Other famous "flat houses" are in Odesa and Zhytomyr.

The Franciscan church was built in Lviv in 1708-1178. as the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Capuchin Monastery, founded in 1707 by Elzhbeta Sofiya Senyavska. The temple is made in baroque style.

After the liquidation of the Capuchin order in 1785, the monastery complex was occupied by the Franciscans.

In Soviet times, a boarding school was located here.

Today, the church belongs to the Church of Seventh-day Adventist Christians.

The Lviv Ivan Franko National Literary and Memorial Museum (Franko House) was opened in 1940 on the initiative of the writer's youngest son, Petro.

The museum is located in a small two-story villa in the Swiss style, where Ivan Franko and his family spent the last 14 years of his life.

The exhibition was based on a collection of autographs, letters, documents, photographs, books and personal belongings from the writer's office, collected by the Taras Shevchenko Scientific Society.

In Franko House, the atmosphere of the life of the writer and his family is recreated in detail: a study, a library, a dining room, Ivan Franko's bedroom, a women's room, Olha Franko's room, Taras and Petro Franko's room. In 2018, the exhibition "Kitchen of the Franko House" was created.

The literary exposition is located in the neighboring two-story house of the Polish entrepreneur Antony Uvyera, built in 1923-1925 in the neoclassical style according to the project of the Lviv architect Ivan Bahenskyi.

Upon request, the museum "Franko House" staff conducts theatrical, thematic, author's, interactive excursions, walking tours through the streets of Lviv, themed quests, and master classes. Literary evenings, theater performances, concerts of classical and modern music, various exhibitions and performances are also periodically held in the museum.

The legendary George Hotel in Lviv is the oldest hotel in Ukraine, an elegant architectural monument of the times of Austria-Hungary.

Founded in 1793 as the restaurant "Under the Three Hooks", on the basis of which the De La Rus Inn opened three years later. In 1816, the hotel became the property of the Bavarian merchant Georg (George) Hoffmann, who arranged the garden, built a theater hall and an entrance gate.

The current building in the Viennese Neo-Renaissance style was built in 1901 according to the project of the famous Viennese architects Hermann Helmer and Ferdinand Fellner, the authors of the Odessa Opera. The "Saint George" relief was moved from the old building to the pediment of the new one. In the niches of the side facades are allegorical statues symbolizing Europe, Asia, America, Africa. The hall with a wide spread staircase impresses with grandeur.

Many celebrities stayed at the Georges Hotel: Honore de Balzac, Ferenc Liszt, Ethel.-Lilian Voynich and others.

The Museum of Glass in Lviv was established on the initiative of a famous Ukrainian glazier, chairman of the organizing committee of the International Symposiums of Tempered Glass in Lviv, former rector of the Lviv National Academy of Arts, Professor Andriy Bokotey.

Among the oldest exhibits are glassware and beads made in the I-II centuries AD in the Roman colonies in southern Ukraine, beads and utensils from the XI-XII centuries, as well as bracelets and fragments of bracelets found during archaeological excavations.

Since 2006, the museum has been operating in the basement of the Bandinelli Palace in the Rynok Square. Since then, the museum's collection has been systematically replenished with works created as part of the International Symposium of Tempered Glass. Part of it was transferred to the funds of the Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum in Lviv.

The Gunpowder Tower is a fully preserved fragment of Lviv's defensive structures. One of the 17 towers that were part of the ring of city fortifications. A monument of military defense architecture of the Renaissance era.

The Gunpowder tower was located on the defensive rampart behind the second line of fortifications and served to protect the approaches to the city from the eastern side. It was also used to store gunpowder and ammunition, and in peacetime - as a grain warehouse.

It is built of unhewn stone, semicircular in plan, three-story, covered with a gabled roof. The thickness of the walls reaches 2.5 meters. For more than four centuries, the rising ground level hid the lower part of the tower by one and a half to two meters.

Since 1959, the premises have been occupied by the Architect's House with an exhibition hall. Now the Center for Architecture, Design and Urbanism "Gunpowder Tower" is located here.

The historical museum complex of the Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum in Lviv is located in the former villa of Lviv University professor Emil Dunikovsky, which was built in 1896-1898 by architect Vladislav Raush in the Neo-Baroque style.

In 1911 it was purchased for the needs of the Church Museum by its founder and patron, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. It was here in 1913 that the first exposition of the National Museum in Lviv was opened.

Now in the Historical museum complex the permanent exposition "Ukrainian art of the XX-th century" is developed. It is a continuation of the exposition of Ukrainian art of the XII-XIX centuries, which is located in the main building of the museum on Svobody Avenue.

The presented works present the formation and development of Ukrainian art culture in line with the main styles and directions of world art of the last century, and reflects the cultural and artistic processes of the Soviet period, which developed outside the normative aesthetics of socialist realism.

The fire and technical exhibition of the Ministry of Emergencies was opened in the building of the Fire Safety Department in Lviv region.

The first hall reflects the history of fire development in Galicia and, in particular, in Lviv. Among the exhibits is an Austrian-made pump from 1849.

The second hall is dedicated to the everyday life of firefighters.

The exposition concludes with a hall dedicated to the Chornobyl disaster.

The Museum of the History of Lviv Polytechnic was founded in 2002 on the initiative of the then rector Yuriy Rudavsky.

The museum premises are located on the third floor of a monumental three-story building - an educational building, built according to the design of Yulian Zakhariyevych in 1873-1877 in the Italian Neo-Renaissance style specifically for the Imperial and Royal Technical Academy. Now it is the main building of the National University "Lviv Polytechnic", which is an architectural monument.

The museum premises have a rich architectural decor - pilasters, stucco molding, light lanterns in the ceiling, wall and ceiling paintings. The window overlooking the central staircase opens a view of the richly decorated space of the stairs and original paintings of the 1890s, made according to the sketches of Yulian Zakhariyevych.

The museum's exposition contains documents, photographs, devices and other exhibits that tell about the foundation and development of Lviv Polytechnic, the oldest technical university in Ukraine and one of the oldest in Europe. The history of the formation of Lviv Polytechnic is presented in chronological order, as well as information about world-famous scientists whose fate is connected with Lviv Polytechnic. Historical photographs of buildings, students' studies and everyday life are also presented for viewing. Special attention during the excursions will be paid to the involvement of Lviv Polytechnic in oil production or electrification of Galicia, the development of aviation, astronautics and computer science.