Attractions of Lviv district

The museum of the famous Ukrainian Baroque sculptor Johann Georg Pinsel (Ivan Heorhiy Pinzel) is located in the former church of the Poor Clares in Lviv, which is an architectural monument of the XVII century.

Modest in architecture, but luxuriously painted from the middle, the church was built in 1607 by Pavlo Rymlyanyn and Bernard Avelides on the site of an old chapel of nuns of the Poor Clares of the Bernardine Order. Since then, the Renaissance elements of the side facade of the church from Lychakivska Street have been preserved. In the 1740s the church underwent a Baroque reconstruction, and during the restoration of 1938-1939 the tower was completed. The interiors of the church are decorated with paintings by Stanislav Stroyinsky made in the XVIII century, some later plots in the southern nave belong to the brush of Tadeush Popel.

Since 1996, the Church of the Poor Clares houses the Museum of Baroque Sculpture of Johann Georg Pinsel, which is called "Ukrainian Michelangelo". Here is the richest collection of unique baroque sculptures by master, which were found and saved in the 1970s. The Ivan Heorhiy Pinzel Museum is a department of the Lviv National Art Gallery named after Borys Voznytsky.

After the reconstruction in 2021, the renovated Pinzel Sculpture Museum was given a completely barrier-free space. Tactile strips are laid from the public transport stop and in the middle of the building. Sound beacons are installed at the entrance. The museum has an inclusive box office and a mnemonic at the entrance. Internal stairs are duplicated by a lift. Information plates duplicated in Braille are installed near the exhibits. Tactile copies of the most important exhibits are offered to visually impaired visitors. Audio guides and audio description available. The staff has been trained to work with all categories of visitors.

The Latin Cathedral is the main church of the Roman Catholic Church in Lviv. The official name is the Metropolitan Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Lviv Archdiocese. Unofficially, Lviv residents call it simply the Cathedral.

It was built and rebuilt by Lviv city planners for 400 years. The first stone was laid by the Polish king Kazymyr the Great in 1360. After the restoration of 1760-1778, Gothic forms gave way to the then fashionable Baroque.

In the cathedral there was an icon of the Mother of God the Merciful ("The Beautiful Star of the City of Lviv"), the original of which is now kept in Vavel in Krakow. Its exact copy was made for Lviv and in 2001 Pope Ivan Paul II crowned it.

The main organ, stained glass windows by Yan Mateyko and others have been preserved. In the eastern wall, you can see the cores, reminiscent of the Turkish siege of 1672, as well as a projectile left over from the Ukrainian-Polish war of 1918-1919.

At the end of the 18th century, a cemetery with numerous chapels was located around the church, of which only the most valuable have survived: the Boim chapel (1609-1615) and the Campian chapel (1619).

The Latin Cathedral is the Sanctuary of the Mother of God the Merciful and Divine Mercy.

The palace of Lviv patrician, rich merchant of Greek origin Kostyantyn Kornyakt on Rynok Square is a pearl of residential Renaissance architecture of Lviv, an architectural monument of national importance.

The palace was built in 1580 by architect Petro Barbon with the participation of his student Pavlo Rymlianyn. For some time it was owned by the Sobieski royal family, receiving the second name "Royal Townhouse".

It is in the Kornyakt Palace is the famous Italian (Venetian) courtyard on the model of the Renaissance Italian cortile, which surrounds the inner perimeter with open galleries under the arcades. The gallery presents an exhibition of sculptures from the Lviv Historical Museum, in particular "Justice and Justice" - a shameful pillar (pranger), which stood on the front in front of Lviv City Hall.

Now the administration of the Lviv Historical Museum is located in the palace. The permanent exposition of the department "Kornyakt Palace" presents the history of the house through the fate of its inhabitants in the context of the history of the city, region, Europe.

The "Royal Chambers" are traditionally called the four former ceremonial halls of the royal residence, located on the second floor of the building. Today, the preserved interiors of the early 19th century feature paintings, sculptures, samples of salon furniture, clocks, porcelain, musical instruments, ancient European orders, and rare memorials. One of the most popular exhibits is a mysterious black chair in the form of a winged dragon. Usually, at the end of the tour you can hear the live sound of the music box Symphonion.

There is a café with outdoor tables and an antique shop in the Italian courtyard.

The departments of the Lviv Historical Museum are:
- Arsenal Museum;
- Lviv History Museum;
- History of Ukraine Museum;
- Palazzo Bandinelli;
- Ukraine Liberation Struggle Museum;
- History of Science and Technology Museum;
- Literary Lviv Museum;
- Roman Shukhevych Museum;
- Yevhen Konovalets Museum.

One of the most interesting examples of Lviv Renaissance architecture in the ensemble of Rynok Square is the Lorentsovych house, better known as the "Black House" (Chorna Kamyanytsia). The black color sharply distinguishes this building from the other buildings of the square and creates a sharp contrast with it.

The "Black House" was built in 1589 in the style of the late Renaissance by the architect Petro Krasovsky on the order of Sofia Ganel.

During the XVI-XIX centuries, the house changed owners many times, as well as completed and rebuilt. Initially, the building was not black, but under the influence of precipitation, the sandstone masonry was greatly darkened, and now it is specially painted black.

Back in 1926, the city bought the "Black House" from the last owner and opened the Lviv History Museum, which is now a department of the Lviv Historical Museum. The almost 800-year history of the city is represented on three floors by authentic objects of XIV-XX centuries: symbolic keys to the city, seals of the magistrate, inaugural chains of the president and mayor, benches from the conference hall, portraits of city leaders, coats of arms of Lviv in different historical periods. You can see a model of princely Lviv of the XIII-XIV centuries and a model of the Renaissance town hall.

In the courtyard and the first floor there is a Lapidarium - an exposition of stone monuments of Lviv: carved from stone architectural and sculptural fragments, parts of old monuments, epitaphs, etc. In total, about 50 samples of stone sculpture from ancient, mostly non-existent, buildings in Lviv.

National University "Lviv Polytechnic" was founded in 1844, it was the first academic technical school in Ukraine.

The building of the Technical Academy was built in 1877 by the architect Yulian Zakhariyevych, who became its rector. The interiors of the magnificent building are richly decorated with sculptures and moldings. Ten paintings of the assembly hall were made based on sketches by Yan Mateyko.

Currently, Lviv Polytechnic has the status of a national university, 30,000 students study here.

Excursions of the Main Building of the University are conducted, during which visitors are introduced to the history of the institution, unique interiors, masterpieces of painting and sculpture, the Machine Hall with mechanisms and equipment from different eras, the 19th century student library, the oldest observatory in Ukraine, and the Museum of the History of the Polytechnic.

The Museum of Memory of Victims of Stalinist Repressions was founded in the village of Shchyrets in 2009 in the former courtyard of a Roman Catholic priest, where in June 1941, employees of the NKVD district department executed 26 innocent local residents.

The museum complex consists of several objects - a memorial stele, a chapel, a cross with a grave, a demonstration hiding place of UPA soldiers and the museum itself. Materials for the exhibition were provided by eyewitnesses of those terrible events from the surrounding villages.

The main exhibition of the Museum of Memory of Victims of Stalinist Repressions is located in the premises of a former stable, built at the end of the 19th century, in which the NKVD set up a torture chamber in 1941.

The first hall of the museum is dedicated to the innocent civilians of Shchyrets and its environs who were tortured by the Stalinist regime. Separate sections of the exhibition are dedicated to the history of the liberation movement in the region, the activities of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen and fighters of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army - clothing (embroidery, uniforms) and objects (printing machine, guns) used by the soldiers are presented. In addition, the exhibition introduces materials about the clergy, intelligentsia and Ukrainian nationalists repressed during the Stalinist era, and also explores the life stories of local residents who were repressed to Siberia.

In the second hall, called "Ukrainian Hut", antique household items that were once used in the household are collected, images, embroidered towels and shirts, "Crimean" scarves, etc. are stored.

You can see how the soldiers of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army lived during the liberation struggle in a specially equipped hiding place. Next to the hiding place is a memorial stele to the soldiers of the OUN-UPA, erected at the expense of patrons.

The new exhibition of the museum of memory of the victims of Stalinist repressions is dedicated to the heroes of the Heavenly Hundred and the Russian-Ukrainian war. On August 29, 2024, on the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine who died in the struggle for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, the Heroes' Memorial Alley was opened in the village of Shchyrets.

The Lychakiv cemetery-museum, located near the center of Lviv, is more like a landscape park.

The cemetery was officially founded in 1784, although it existed on this site as early as the 16th century. The territory of 40 hectares is divided into 86 fields, on which there are almost 3.5 thousand monuments and compositions of the work of famous sculptors and architects. Ivan Franko, Solomiya Krushelnytska, Mariya Konopnytska, Volodymyr Ivasyuk and others are buried at the Lychakiv Cemetery.

In 1991, the Lychakiv cemetery became a historical-memorial museum-reserve.

Many controversies in the 1990s caused the restoration of the "Cemetery of the Eagles" memorial, destroyed during the Soviet era, in honor of Polish soldiers who died in 1918-1920 in the Ukrainian-Polish and Soviet-Polish wars. The memorial was officially opened in 2005 at the same time as the memorial to the fallen soldiers of the Ukrainian Galician Army.

The National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after Solomiya Krushelnytska in Lviv is considered one of the most beautiful theaters in Europe, along with the Odesa and Vienna opera houses.

The facade of the building is decorated with sculptural figures "Life" and "Art", statues "Glory", "Victory", "Love". The theater was designed in such a way that the lobby, corridors and stairs were illuminated with natural light as much as possible. One of the most beautiful interiors is a mirrored hall decorated with paintings depicting the symbolic change of seasons. A large chandelier in the hall made of precious materials is decorated with allegorical figures.

On the second floor, the personal apartments of Emperor Frants Yosyf with a bathroom and access to the imperial (now presidential) box have been preserved.

The aristocratic coffee shop "Komaryk" works.

Excursions are conducted.

The National Memorial Museum of Victims of Occupation Regimes "Prison at Lontskoho" was opened in Lviv in a building that for 85 years was occupied by the punitive bodies of various authorities.

The complex at the intersection of modern Bandery and Kopernika streets was built at the end of the 19th century for the Austrian gendarmerie. Then the prisons of the Polish, German and Soviet authorities were located in the building. In 1941, the largest number of political prisoners in Western Ukraine was destroyed here - 1,645. During the German occupation, the Gestapo prison was housed in the building. After the Second World War, it was used by the Soviet punitive and repressive authorities to hold captured rebels. After the declaration of Ukraine's independence, the detention center of the SBU was located here.

The museum complex "Prison at Lontskoho" was opened by the Liberation Movement Research Center and the Security Service of Ukraine. An authentic prison setting has been recreated. The complex includes a solitary confinement cell, a death row cell, and an investigator's office. Declassified "shooting lists" are presented, as well as the archive file of one of the most famous prisoners - Father Mykola Khmilevskyi, head of the underground Greek Catholic Church and member of the Ukrainian Main Liberation Council.

Excursions are conducted by appointment.

The Basilian Monastery of the Nativity of Christ with the rich Baroque Church of the Sacred Heart of Christ was built in Zhovkva in 1612 on the site of the wooden Basilian Church.

The first abbot was Metropolitan Dosytheus, buried in the crypt under the church. Initially, the complex was built in the Renaissance style and had a defensive character. The reconstruction carried out in 1905 completely changed its appearance. The Renaissance carved white stone southern portal has been preserved since the 17th century.

The wonderful iconostasis of the work of the famous master Ivan Rutkovich is now kept in the National Museum named after Andrey Sheptytskyi in Lviv. Modernist wall paintings of 1911-1939 have been preserved in the interior. the works of Yulian Butsmanyuk, which, in particular, depict figures of the Ukrainian People's Republic of Ukraine and the West Ukrainian People's Republic. The portrait of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi can be guessed in the image of Savaof.

The relics of Saint Parthenius are kept in the Church of the Heart of Christ.

The three-storey townhouse at the corner of Rynok Square and Stavropihiyska Street is one of the oldest buildings in the central part of Lviv.

Built in the style of the late Renaissance in 1593. It was in this house that the wealthy Florentine merchant Roberto Bandinelli in 1629 opened the first post office in Lviv. Later the owners were local Armenians, Austrians and Poles.

Now "Palazzo Bandinelli" is a department of the Lviv Historical Museum, which recreates the residential interiors typical of the life of wealthy Lviv residents of the XVII-XVIII centuries.

For the attention of visitors - a hall for ceremonial receptions, and also enfilades of rooms: a drawing room, a gallery of a front portrait, an office, a dining room, etc. The rooms exhibit samples of handmade furniture, porcelain and earthenware from Europe, China and Japan, a collection of silverware, paintings.

The decoration of the collection is woven wallpaper, made to order by King Louis XVI of France. Of great interest is the interior of the kitchen, where samples of antique metal utensils are collected.

Earlier, the Palazzo Bandinelli housed the Royal Mail Museum, which told about the development of the postal service in Galicia, the construction of postal tracts, the opening of post offices with hotels, the emergence of stagecoaches and postmen.

The oldest pharmacy in Lviv has been operating on Rynok Square for almost 300 years.

The pharmacy in the townhouse "Under the Black Eagle" was opened in 1735 by a military pharmacist Frants Vilhelm Natorp, as evidenced by a wrought-iron sign with the emblem of medicine above the entrance. On both sides of the neat portal there are relief portraits of the god of healing Aesculapius and his daughter - the goddess of health Hygiene.

The old interior of the trade hall, paintings by Viennese masters on the ceiling, antique scales and cash registers have been preserved.

In 1966, the Museum of the History of Pharmacy opened here, with an exposition of more than 3,000 exhibits. In the exhibition halls you can see a variety of pharmaceutical devices, reconstruction of the pharmacist's home, an underground alchemical laboratory.

The courtyard recreates the view of the house of a rich burgher of the XVI-XVII centuries.

Pharmacy "Under the Black Eagle" continues to serve people today, becoming a state pharmacy № 15. In addition to drugs, you can buy the world-famous "Iron Wine" (aqueous solution of iron sugar used in iron deficiency anemia) and the popular Lviv tincture "Vihor", which is considered a means of increasing potency. Memorable souvenirs are also sold here.

The most luxurious palace in Lviv was created for the influential Polish magnates Potocki according to the project of the union of Lviv architects Lyudvih Baldvin-Ramult, Yuliush Tsybulsky, Petro Harasymovych and Leonard Markoni.

The customer was Count Alfred II Yuzef Potocki, his son Roman Potocki was completing the construction. The historicist-style palace is modeled on the entre cour et jardin residences of King Louis XIV of the Baroque Classicist era, when clear planning combined with rich exterior design.

Interiors in the style of King Louis XVI have been preserved. In particular, on the ground floor there are ceremonial halls for the reception of guests, in the design of which stucco, gilding, colored marble, painting are widely used. In Soviet times, the Palace of Marriages was located here.

In 2007, the Potocki Palace opened the Museum of European Art of the XIV-XVIII centuries - a department of the Lviv National Art Gallery named after Borys Voznytskyi. On the second floor there is one of the richest collections of European art in Ukraine, including "Catching Corals and Pearls" by Jacopo Zucchi, "Payment" by Georges de La Tour, "Portrait of a Young Patrician" by Sofonisba Anguissola, "Allegory of Divine Mercy" by an unknown German artist, "The Visit of Mary Elizabeth" by Jan van Scorel, sketches of monumental paintings by Paul Troger, Joseph Winterhalter, Franz Anton Maulbertsch and others.

The Park of Castles and Defense Structures of Ancient Ukraine has been opened in the courtyard of the Potocki Palace. Architect Ihor Kachor created 1:50 scale models of 18 fortifications that exist now or existed earlier on the historical territory of Ukraine-Russia. Entrance to the territory is free.

The architectural ensemble of Lviv's main shopping square began to take shape in the 14th century in the style of European medieval cities (before that, the Stariy Rynok (Old Market) was the shopping center).

Market Square (Rynok square) is surrounded on four sides by 44 houses (apartments), different in time of construction and style (Renaissance, Baroque, Empire). Architects Petro Krasovskyi, Martyn Hradovskyi, Petro Barbon, Pavlo Rimlyanin, Bernard Meretyn, Sebastian Fesinger and others worked on the building.

Elements of Gothic architecture of the XV-XVI centuries have been preserved in the basements and first floors of many buildings. They are home to museums, shops and popular cafes. The Lviv Historical Museum occupies the most interesting buildings ("Black Stone House", "Royal Stone House" and others).

The Lviv City Hall (1381-1827) in the center of the square is a symbol of the city. The building is used for its intended purpose - it houses the city government. The Lviv Information and Tourist Center is located on the first floor of City Hall, providing tourists with information, maps and guidebooks.

There are always many tourists on Rynok Square in Lviv, especially on the days of numerous holidays and festivals.

The Church of Saint Archangel Michael in Lviv was built at one time as a Catholic church of the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites, which was first mentioned in 1634, and has a long history of construction.

It was built, perhaps, according to the project of the architect Ivan Pokorovych, the son of the Lviv architect of Italian origin, Adam de Liarto. The towers of the main facade were designed by the architect Alois Vondrashka in 1835-1839, and completed during the restoration in 1906 by the architect Vladyslav Halytskyi.

The church was painted in 1731-1732 by the Italian artist Giuseppe Carlo Pedretti together with his Lviv student and assistant Benedykt Mazurkevych. The main altar is made of black marble (XVII century). Its authorship is attributed to the sculptor Oleksandr Prokhenkovych.

As one of the defense nodes of Lviv, the Carmelite church was repeatedly attacked, and in 1748 it even served as the arena of the so-called "monachomachy" - a struggle between Carmelite monks and Capuchins.

In 1991, the church and monastery were handed over to the monks of the Studio Statute of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (an order founded in the 1920s by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi) and re-consecrated in honor of Saint Archangel Michael, the patron saint of Ukraine-Rus and the guardian of the Holy Sepulchre.