Attractions of Lviv region

The Palace of Arts "Villa Bianca" in Drohobych is a vivid example of the Secession architectural style (Viennese Art Nouveau) of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The richly decorated dark green two-story building belonged to Dr. Yozef Rott, a radiologist. The house is described in Bruno Schulz's novel "Spring" as "Villa Bianca".

Now it is the building of the Palace of Arts, which belongs to the "Drohobychchyna" museum, and is used as an exhibition center.

Wall paintings by Bruno Schultz, discovered in 2001 at "Villa Landau" in Drohobych, are presented here.

The thematic exhibition "Treasures of Count Lyantskoronsky" presents more than 150 items of highly artistic works of fine and decorative and applied art.

Ukrainian painting of the 20th century is also presented.

The park "Stara Strilnytsia" in Lviv was founded in 1823 as a botanical garden by the Polish botanist, professor of Lviv University Ernst Wittmann on the territory that belonged to the Rifle Brotherhood of Lviv since the second half of the 18th century. Here, riflemen practiced their marksmanship.

In 1890, the garden was redeveloped into a landscape park. It is located on the southern slope of Stefan Mountain and adjoins the park "Znesinnia".

In 1825-1829, a rifle house with a room for meetings and celebrations was built in the garden according to the design of architect Franz Thresher. In our time, a modern three-story building of the veteran hub "Strilnytsia" with a shooting range, conference rooms, a cafe and a terrace on the roof was built on the site of its remains.

At the entrance to the park in 1870-1871, architect Josef Engel built a new palace with a corner tetrahedral tower. It was used for ceremonial gatherings and balls of members of the society. Today, this architectural monument houses the Ukraine Liberation Struggle Museum.

The Regional Landscape Park "Znesinnia" in Lviv was created in 1991-1993 on the territory historically known as "Kaiserwald" (Imperial Forest). In the 18th century, the estate of Lviv burgomaster François Longchamps de Bérier was located here, which Emperor Joseph II visited several times. The park received its current name from the village of Znesinnia, which was once located on its territory.

The park is located near the city center. Its area is 312 hectares. It is mainly wooded ravines and hills, the highest of which is Lev Hill (389 meters), opposite the Vysokyi Zamok (High Castle) Hill. From there, a panorama of Lviv opens. The natural landscape consists of hills, lakes, meadows, areas of primeval forests and forest-steppe. Hornbeam, beech, oak, ash, maple and sycamore dominate the trees.

The territory of the "Znesinnia" park is home to the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life named after Klymentii Sheptytsky in Shevchenkovskyi Grove, the "Home of Rescued Animals" shelter, an abandoned ski complex, a sports ground, and playgrounds. Asphalt alleys and eco-trails are laid throughout the park from Dovbusha Street to Shevchenkovskyi Grove. There are picnic areas near the lake.

The Memorial Museum of the Patriarch of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, Cardinal Yosyp Slipy, was opened in 1997 in the main building of the Ukrainian Catholic University.

The museum exposition is presented on the basis of materials from the private collection of the famous popularizer and propagandist of the ideas of the Patriarch, doctor of medicine, Roman Smik from the USA, as well as modern philatelic materials of the head of the Lviv Regional Organization of the Ukrainian Philatelic Society Roman Byshkevych, documents and photo materials of the Institute of Church History. These are special envelopes, postcards and stamps, medals, tokens, festive ribbons, with which the Ukrainian community abroad tried to celebrate every event in the life of the Church and the Patriarch after his arrival in Rome.

The museum illuminates the life of the Patriarch, popularizes the ideas laid down in the Testaments of Yosyp Slipy. It combines three periods of the Patriarch's life: Lviv, in exile in Siberia, and Roman.

Two rarities are included in the museum's collection: a cast of the great seal of Patriarch Yosyp Slipy and the medal "For Loyalty to the Church and the Pope", which was awarded in 1998 to priests of the UGCC who survived the times of persecution. Photographs of the Patriarch occupy a special place in the museum. In the museum there are personal paramans (an amulet that testifies to the special care of the Virgin Mary) worn by the Patriarch, his sweater, kamilavka, omophorus and miter. Also in the exhibition is the miter of the Patriarch, which was worn on the day of the funeral. After restoration, it was transferred to the museum.

A particularly valuable museum exhibit is the omophorus of the Patriarch. This is the first omophorus he wore when he came to Rome (the Patriarch went to a meeting with Pope Ivan XXIII in a borrowed cassock).

The People's Museum of Father Markiyan Shashkevych in the village of Novosilky was opened in 2011 for the 200th anniversary of his birth. It is located in the premises of the former village school built in 1928.

The outstanding Ukrainian writer, public figure, "awakener" of national consciousness in Galicia, Markiyan Shashkevych, was the parish priest of the village of Novosilky in 1842-1843. It was here that he died and here is the place of his first burial.

The museum presents a gallery of portraits of Markiyan Shashkevych and photos of memorable places connected with him. Here you can learn about the activities of the "Ruthenian Triad" (Ruska Triytsia) society founded by Shashkevych, about his literary heritage and about the history of the reburial of the "alarmist".

The ethnographic exposition presents everyday objects of residents of Novosilky of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, embroideries, icons, and old prints. A monument to Father Markiyan Shashkevych (sculptor Teodozia Bryzh) has been installed in front of the museum.

Peremyshliany Museum of History and Local Lore is a branch of the Lviv Historical Museum.

The museum is housed in an old Art Nouveau building located in the center of Peremyshliany.

An exposition about the nature of Peremyshliany region, the history of Peremyshliany and the whole region is presented.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Roman Catholic community of the village of Poliany was small and belonged to the parish in Pomoriany. However, the owners of the village Frantsishek Hursky and Valerian Valsky decided to build a chapel here.

Thus, in 1904, the Peter and Paul Church was built according to the project of the famous architect Yulian Zakharevych in a transitional style from historicism to modernism. In 1924, a separate Roman Catholic parish was formed in the village of Poliany, which remained there until 1944, when the priest left the village.

After the Second World War, the Soviet government used the church as a warehouse, dividing the premises into two floors. Today, the church remains inactive and is in a deplorable state. Nearby is an old Polish cemetery.

The monument in honor of the military pilot, the founder of the highest aerobatics, the author of the "dead loop" Petro Nesterov, is located on the outskirts of the village of Volia-Vysotska, at the place of the pilot's death.

In 1914, during an aerial battle with the Austrian ace, Baron Fridrikh fon Rozental, who piloted the heavy biplane "Albatross", Nesterov on his light "Moran" made the first air ram in the world. Both planes crashed, the pilots were killed. A memorial sign was installed at the place where Nesterov's plane crashed.

In Soviet times, a memorial with a museum and a 45-meter monument in the form of a jet plane emerging from the "dead loop" was built, and the neighboring town of Zhovkva bore the name of Nesterov for some time.

During the years of independence of Ukraine, the memorial in honor of the Russian pilot was neglected, but the monument was preserved.

The Plisnesko Hillfort is the ramparts and defensive ditches of the historic city of Plisnesk, which existed from the 7th to the 13th centuries on the border of Halychyna and Volyn.

This trade and craft city had the right to self-government for a long time. Its territory, together with the post and suburbs, occupied almost 160 hectares.

The builders used the natural features of the high plateau, constructing a very complex and difficult-to-reach defense system of seven defensive lines. However, in 1241, the city was completely destroyed by the troops of Khan Batiy and has not been rebuilt since then.

Later, the Pidhirtsi Monastery was founded on its territory.

In 2015, the historical and cultural reserve "Ancient Plisnesk" was created.

Pohulianka Forest Park in Lviv is a botanical natural monument of local importance. It is located in the eastern part of the city and covers about 100 hectares of green territory with ravines through which the Pasika stream (the source of the Poltva River) flows.

The park in the area, which was previously called Attelmayerivski Pasiky, was founded in the early 19th century by the famous Lviv lawyer Franciszek Wenglinski, who built his estate here. Pohulianka became a popular recreation area in the mid-19th century, when entrepreneur Jan Klein built a brewery and opened a restaurant here. During the Soviet era, the brewery was rebuilt into the Ukrvyno plant, but now its buildings have been in ruins for many years.

The park plantings are dominated by beech, hornbeam, pine, and oak anemone. An illuminated pedestrian path is laid along the central axis of the park. The park area is decorated with three ponds with artificial waterfalls. In the depths of the park lies the former church of Armenian Benedictine nuns from 1897, which now belongs to the parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Pohulianka Forest Park is maintained by the municipal enterprise "Green Lviv". Part of the territory is allocated for the botanical garden of the Ivan Franko University.

The terminus of trams No. 1 and No. 7 is located near the central entrance to the park.

The Pomoriany Castle was built on a hill at the confluence of the Makhnivka River with the Zolota Lypa in the 16th century on the site of a wooden fortress founded in the 15th century by the noble Mykola Svynka.

The castle was a two-story, rectangular building with corner towers and a closed courtyard, surrounded on three sides by the channel and marshy floodplain of the river. Along the axis of the northern building on the side of the city was an entrance gate with a tower and a drawbridge.

In 1675 and 1684, the Pomoriany Castle was captured by the Turks, but by 1690 it was restored by the Polish king Yan III Sobesky, becoming one of his favorite residences.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the castle was rebuilt several times, passing through the hands of different owners. The last major reconstruction was carried out at the beginning of the 20th century by Yuriy Potoski, turning the medieval fortress into a luxurious manor with a palace. Two two-story buildings have survived from the old castle. The oldest of them is the eastern one, with a round corner tower. The later, southern one, has an open gallery on the side of the yard, completed in the 18th-19th centuries. In the round tower with a tented roof there are stairs leading to the second floor. In the walls of the tower, loopholes on four levels have been preserved.

During the Second World War, the Gestapo was housed in the building, and after the arrival of Soviet power, the district committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, then PTU. Restoration was carried out in 1978, but now the Pomoriany Castle is in a deplorable state.

The Sheptytskyi branch of the Lviv Museum of the History of Religion is located in the Potocki Palace, which is an architectural monument of local significance.

Krystynopil Castle (the former name of the city is Sheptytskyi) was built in the 18th century by French architect Pyer Riko de Tirredhelli for members of the powerful Polish landowner Potocki family. In its architecture, the building combines two styles: Baroque and Early Classicism.

The Potocki Palace had about 40 rooms, several salons, a large ballroom, a Chinese study and a library. The architectural complex also included kitchen buildings, breweries, distilleries, barracks, stables and other utility rooms. The current appearance of the palace has changed significantly due to numerous fires and alterations.

The Museum of Religion has been located there since 1990. The main exposition tells about the history of Krystynopil (Sheptytskyi) in the XVII-XIX centuries and its founders.

In the basement of the Potocki Palace, samples of bricks used during the construction of the complex are exhibited.

A memorial sign in the form of a cross on a high ceiling was installed in 2012 at the probable burial place of Prince Svyatoslav Volodymyrovych of Drevlyans, son of Prince of Kyiv Volodymyr the Great, brother of Saints Borys and Hlib.

Having learned about the murder of the brothers by Svyatopolk the Terrible, who seized the throne of Kyiv after the death of Volodymyr in 1015, Svyatoslav and his wife fled to Hungary, but were caught by the killers in the Carpathians. According to legend, seven sons of Svyatoslav and most of his wife died in a brutal battle, the entire valley of the Opir River was covered with the bodies of the dead.

These events were reflected in local toponymy: the city of Skole (from Svyatopolk's order: "Slaughter them all!"), the village of Semihynyv (the place of death of seven princes), Mount Parashka (the place of death of Princess Paraska), the village of Slavsko (the settlement of the surviving remains of Svyatoslav's wife ).

Prince Svyatoslav's grave is a mound with a symbolic sarcophagus on top, above which rises an 18-meter cross.

The Pryima Grotto is located in the middle of the forest, 2 kilometers southeast of Mykolayiv, not far from the small village of Pryima.

A 46,000-year-old settlement of Neanderthals was discovered in the cave. Also recorded are materials from the Early Iron Age, XVIII-XIX centuries (Upper canopy), XVIII-XIX centuries (Lower Cave) and Mousterian era (Upper floor-grotto).

The Pyatnychany Tower is considered a rare monument of defensive architecture of the Galician school and, perhaps, one of the oldest fortifications in Galicia.

According to one version, the fortification in Pyatnychany dates back to princely times. The tower was part of the defensive yard of the noble family of Vnuchek, the first written mention of which dates back to 1454. The defensive yard was located on a hillside in the western part of the village. Pyatnychany.

It was a characteristic stone-wooden fortification of the cape type. The only stone tower, which was adjoined by wooden walls, in plan has the shape of an almost regular square with sides of 7.83x7.4 m. The height of the walls reaches 9.5 m.

For a long time the Pyatnychany tower remained dilapidated, it was restored only in 1990-1991 In particular, the drawbridge was restored, which rises on the principle of counterweight.

Since 1995, the Pyatnychany Tower Museum of Defense Architecture has been a branch of the Lviv National Art Gallery. The exposition of the museum is located on the second and third tiers of the stone gate tower.

Archaeological finds from the territory of the former defense yard, a map of defense construction and well-known examples of military architecture of the Galicia-Volyn principality are exhibited.