Attractions of Lviv region

The Museum of Arts and Crafts of the Yavoriv Region and Yavoriv Painting was created on the basis of the Yosyp Stanko Art Vocational School in Ivano-Frankove.

The exposition began to take shape in 1958, when the school was still working in Yavoriv. The museum exhibits many decorative plates decorated with Yavoriv Painting, flat-relief carvings, relief carvings, openwork-relief carvings; candlesticks; Yavoriv boxes; pendants from various plates; furniture with Yavoriv carvings, including two chess tables with chess pieces.

Numerous easel carvings on fairy-tale themes, sculptural portraits of Ivan Franko and Bohdan Khmelnytsky are presented.

Zhovkva Castle is an outstanding architectural monument of the Renaissance, the main element of the fortification system of the "ideal city" of Zhovkva.

Construction began in 1594 by the city's founder Stanislav Zholkevsskyi, the author of the first project was Pavlo Shchaslyvy. The castle is quadrangular, with towers located at the corners, connected by covered galleries with two-story buildings. The entrance with the Serlian portal is fortified by a four-story tower. In the courtyard there is a palace and office premises. In 1606, the "Zvirynets" garden was built, in which bison, deer and fallow deer were bred for hunting.

At the end of the 17th century, Zhovkva Castle was the summer residence of the Polish king Yan III Sobesky, and became one of the richest royal palaces in Europe (in 1676, celebrations were held here in honor of Sobesky's victory over the Turks near Vienna). Hetman Ivan Mazepa and Tsar Peter I stayed in the palace. Later, the castle became the property of the city.

Until recently, various municipal institutions, a school and even residential apartments were located here. Currently, a State Historical and Architectural Reserve has been created, a tourist information center and a small museum with an exposition dedicated to the history of the city have been opened. The central facade has been restored, and restoration work continues inside.