Attractions of Lviv

The Museum of Ethnography and Artistic Crafts of the Institute of Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine occupies a Neo-Renaissance building on the main street of the Lviv.

At the base of the dome is an allegorical sculptural group symbolizing the economic prosperity of Halicia, which is called the world's only sitting Statue of Liberty.

The exposition presents a rich collection of ceramics, porcelain and earthenware, art glass products. Collection of watches of the XVI-XX centuries. has about 350 copies.

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 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 Garrison Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul (the former Church of Peter and Paul of the Jesuit Order) is one of the largest religious buildings in the city, the first vivid example of mannerism (early baroque) in Lviv.

Construction began in 1610 by the Jesuit monk Sebastyan Lyankhius, who was the author of the original project. The Italian architect Dzhakomo Briano, взявши maintained the pure style of the Italian Baroque during the completion of the church in 1618-1621, taking as a model the facade of the Il Gesu church in Rome. In 1630, the construction was completed, the temple was consecrated, but the finishing works continued for another 30 years.

Trinefny temple. The main facade dominates, decorated with pilasters, niches with statues and a strong cornice. Inside - lush baroque decoration. Paintings were made by artists Francysk and Sebastyan Ekshteyn from Brno. In one of the side altars there is a highly artistic wooden crucifix by Yan Pfister.

Next to the church is a three-story building of the former Jesuit college.

In 2011, the church was consecrated as the Garrison Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul of the UGCC.

In the underground crypts of the church there is a museum "Dungeon of the Garrison Holy Apostles Peter and Paul Church", where you can order a tour of the church.

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.

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.

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.

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 the Kruty Heroes Lviv State Lyceum covers the history of the creation and development of the educational institution, as well as some pages of the history of the formation of Ukrainian statehood.

The first chapter of the exhibition is dedicated to the Battle of Kruty in January 1918 and the memory of the Heroes of Kruty. The stands show the ratio of forces, the composition of units, the course of the battle. All this is illustrated by diagrams, maps, tables. The stand is complemented by elements of armaments of that time: the German Mauser 98 self-loading rifle of the 1898 model, the Russian Mosin rifle of the 1891 model, and the Maxim machine gun.

A separate exposition section is devoted to the prehistory of the lyceum - Lviv Republican Special Boarding School with enhanced military and physical training, which operated from 1985 to 1992, and on the basis of which the lyceum was formed. The section of the history of the lyceum and its development in the conditions of formation of the Ukrainian statehood consists of 4 blocks: creation and development of the Lviv military lyceum (1992-1996); development of Lviv State Lyceum with enhanced military and physical training (1996-2010); lyceum in the period up to 2018; lyceum at the present stage.

Two stands in the museum are dedicated to weapons of different periods. The exhibition presents 18 samples of weapons since the eighteenth century. Some of the materials are presented in multimedia form on an interactive panel, which was presented at the opening of the updated exhibition in 2022.

The Lviv Museum of the History of Religion has been operating in the premises of the 14th-18th century Dominican Monastery in Lviv since 1973.

This work by the Austrian architect Yan de Vitte is one of the best examples of Baroque architecture in the city.

The exposition of the museum tells about the history of world and national religions and church organizations of all times: religions of the ancient world, Judaism, early Christianity, the Armenian Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Orthodoxy in Ukraine, Protestantism, Islam, Buddhism.

Some of the 50,000 exhibits have unique cult, artistic and historical value. In particular, there is a large collection of icons of the XVI-XIX centuries, a large collection of Bibles (including the Ostroh Bible of 1581 and published in Paris in 1563), the reliquary of Saint Anthony of the XI century and more.

The museum practices various forms of scientific and educational work: lectures, excursions, concerts of organ and chamber music.

The exhibition of rare models of transport "Retro Garage" has been on display since 2018 in the premises of the Museum of the History of Science and Technology, which is a department of the Lviv Historical Museum.

The exhibition of retro cars is set up in the oldest hangar from the complex of the first tram depot in Lviv, built in 1894 by the Lviv architect Alfred Kamenobrodsky. The rectangular brick structure has a gable roof supported on wooden trusses supported by side walls and wooden posts.

On an area of more than 500 square meters, Andriy Hladun's private collection of bicycles, mopeds, and motorcycles from the first half of the 20th century and a number of examples of the American automobile industry of the 1970s and 1980s from the collection of collector Taras Mayba are presented.

The Chevrolet Caprice Classic 1986 police car attracts the most attention of visitors. In addition, the museum presents the first city taxi of pre-war Lviv Citroen AC4 Berline Lux and a real fiakr (horse taxi). You can familiarize yourself with the samples of the products of the Lviv Motorcycle Plant from the years 1950–1970 from the funds of the Lviv Historical Museum.

Private collections of car models and American license plates are also exhibited at the exhibition.

The Museum of the History of Ukraine of the Lviv Historical Museum is housed in a four-story building on Rynok Square in Lviv, known as the "Massarivska Kamyanytsia" (Massari House).

Built in the XV century in the Gothic style, later rebuilt in the style of the Renaissance. For some time the house belonged to the family of the Venetian consul Antonio Massari. In the middle of the XIX century there was a delicacy shop Henneman. At the beginning of the XX century the facade was decorated with a triangular pediment, decorated with an allegorical relief by the sculptor Kurchynsky. Late Gothic vaults and windows on the first floor, elements of Renaissance interior decoration have been preserved.

Now in "Massarivska kamyanitsa" there is a historical exposition, which presents more than 2100 monuments of Ukrainian history from ancient times to the early twentieth century: Neolithic instruments and musical instruments, Trypillia ceramics, golden Scythian treasure, ancient Rus crosses, encolpions, medieval Lviv executioner swords, magnate women's and men's clothing, Cossack weapons, astronomical table clock of the XVIII century, collections of old prints and paintings. The portrait of young Roksolana, a girl Nastya Lisovska from Rohatyn, a Turkish prisoner who became the wife of Sultan Suleiman II, is still a secret.

The Ivan Trush Art Memorial Museum in Lviv was opened in 1989, on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the artist's birth.

It is a two-storey building built in 1910 by order of the artist designed by the famous Ukrainian architect Oleksandr Lushpynsky in the style of the late Art Nouveau. He lived here with his family until the end of his life.

The museum exposition presents the main pages of the painter's life and work, presents him as a prominent Ukrainian impressionist, landscape master, portraitist, author of genre compositions, as well as popularizer of Ukrainian culture, editor and publisher of Ukrainian magazines, active public figure of the early twentieth century.

Portraits of prominent Ukrainian figures, paintings with views of Lviv and Kyiv, landscapes of the Crimea and the Carpathians, Italian and Egyptian landscapes, as well as family photos and memorials are presented.

The Ivan Trush Museum is a branch of the Lviv National Museum named after Andrey Sheptytsky.

The Leopold Levytsky Art Memorial Museum was established in the artist's former home in Lviv. Located in a house built in 1891 by Hustav Bizants.

Prominent Ukrainian graphic artist of the twentieth century Leopold Levytsky is considered one of the pioneers of Ukrainian graphic design and advertising. His museum was founded in 1984 on the initiative of the artist's wife Henya Levytska.

The exposition in three rooms highlights the artist's creative achievements in graphics and painting, but also recreates the special environment of the Lviv intelligentsia in which he lived and worked.

The Leopold Levytsky Museum is a branch of the Lviv National Museum named after Andrey Sheptytsky.

The exhibition complex "Lviv Art Palace" is the largest exhibition and cultural and artistic center of Western Ukraine.

The building in the Art Nouveau style was built in 1996 according to the project of the architect Vasyl Kamenshchyk. The facades are decorated with classicist arcaded loggias and a sculpture of Saint Luke, the patron of artists.

With a total area of 8.7 thousand square meters, the area of 12 exhibition halls is 3.6 thousand square meters. The palace has a 200-seat conference hall with a stage and an art lounge.

Such regular events as the International Forum of Publishers, the Lviv Autumn Salon "High Castle", the All-Ukrainian Children's Drawing Competition "Spring Moods", the annual Shevchenko Days art exhibition "Love Your Ukraine..." are held here.

On the basis of donated works and documents, the room-museum of Taras Shevchenko is constantly functioning here. The Palace of Arts also houses the Factory of Saint Nicholas' Assistants and hosts the National Chocolate Day.

The museum-cultural complex of the history of brewing "Lvivarnya" was opened in Lviv in 2016 on the territory of "Lviv Brewery", which is considered the oldest in Ukraine.

The first written mention of Lviv beer dates back to 1384, when a certain Hanko Kleper bought a brewery in the Krakiv suburb, which is still called Klepariv. The year 1715 is considered the official opening date of the Lviv Brewery.

The first brewing museum was opened at the brewery in 2005. After reconstruction, it turned into a modern art center "Lvivarnya".

In the beer museum, you can familiarize yourself with the ancient technology of production. A brewing furnace, a fermentation vat, barrels for beer maturation, etc. are presented. Interesting collections of beer kegs and bottles, beer mugs, advertising samples, technology book and other unique documents. A special exhibit is the legendary 10-liter glass of brewery shareholder Robert Doms.

Thanks to the museum's interactive exhibits, every visitor can feel like a real brewer, touch the history of beer and take a look at the brewing process.

At the end of the tour, there is a tasting of 12 types of keg beer in the restaurant "Hop House of Robert Doms", located in the former beer cellars. There is a souvenir shop.

"Lvivarnya" also functions as a modern art center, where exhibitions, concerts, cultural events, conferences and corporate events take place.