Attractions of Lviv

The Memorial Museum of Totalitarian Regimes "Territory of Terror" was opened in Lviv on the territory of transit prison No. 25.

The prison was established in 1944 by the Soviet occupation administration, which replaced the Nazi one. During the Second World War, this place was the Lviv ghetto.

The museum complex has two barracks, watchtowers, barbed wire fence and other infrastructure facilities.

The museum tells the story of political, social, ethnic and religious repressions of totalitarian regimes against the population living in Ukraine.

A new exhibition of contemporary art of the Borys Voznytsky Lviv National Art Gallery - Modernism Museum - opened in 2021 in a modern two-storey office building made of silicate brick, erected in Soviet times behind the Potocki Palace.

A retrospective of Lviv art from early modern experiments to examples of the aesthetics of late structuralism is unfolded in the seven halls of the museum.

The exhibition hall of historical avant-garde and high modernism of 1914-1939 begins the exposition. The next section illustrates the existential sensitivity of postwar society and the state of social alienation of Lviv intellectuals in the days of totalitarian pressure of 1939-1953, in particular the work of Karl Zvirynsky and the artists of his "hermetic circle". The following are the works of artists of 1960-1970: Yevhen Lysyk, Lubomyr Medvid, Ivan Ostafiychuk, Roman Zhuk, Roman Petruk, whose works trace the influences of European trends: Dadaism, Surrealism and Neo-Expressionism, as well as the large-scale phenomenon of the "Lviv neo-avant-garde".

The last halls exhibit the works of the final phase of modern aesthetics and visualize the transitional period between Lviv modernism and postmodernism. The works of Myroslav Yahoda, Roman Zhuk, Rostyslav Lakh, and Andriy Sahaydakovsky reveal the phenomenon of anti-social alienation, close to the Western definition of "trans-avant-garde."

The "Ancient Lviv" museum opened in 2020 in the dungeons of the Transfiguration Church in the center of Lviv, near Rynok Square.

This is the second institution of a large project of innovative museums under the brand "Formation of the Ukrainian Nation", which combines modern exhibition technologies, realistic 3-D figures of prominent Ukrainians and exhibits from private collections and museum funds.

The Lviv museum presents 40 figures of notable figures who had an impact on the development of the city from 1256 to 1722. Among them are King Danylo Halytsky, Prince Vasylko Romanovych, King Casimir III, sculptor Ivan Heorhiy Pinzel, founder of the first Viennese coffee houses Yuriy Kulchytsky and many others.

Classical and thematic excursions, children's quests, master classes on decorating weapons, weaving chain mail, pottery, making a motanka doll, painting with coffee, and medieval dances are held.

Tickets can be purchased online in advance.

The Museum "Literary L'viv of the Early 20th Century" opened in 1992 in a five-room apartment in a residential building on Heroiv Maidanu Street, 18, built in 1937-1939 according to the project of Zygmunt Sperber in the style of Lviv functionalism. Ukrainian Soviet writer and propagandist Yaroslav Halan lived in this apartment in 1944-1949. Here he was killed as a result of an assassination attempt.

The exposition of the museum reflects controversial political events and social conflicts of the first half of the 20th century, against the background of which the literature of Lviv developed. Furniture, prints, photographs, paintings, postcards, posters of Lviv at that time are presented in the interiors of the city residence.

Ukrainian modernism, "young muses", the poetry of the Sich riflemen, the mutual influence of artists from Galicia and Transnistria, the work of banned and repressed poets and writers, famous Ukrainian names in emigration - this is far from a complete list of topics covered by the museum's exhibition.

The Museum "Literary L'viv of the Early 20th Century" is a department of the Lviv Historical Museum.

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 Museum of Folk Architecture and Life named after Klymentii Sheptytskyi in Lviv is also known as "Shevchenkivsky Grove", Lviv Skansen or open-air museum. It is located on the wooded hills of the "Znesinnia" Regional Landscape Park in the eastern part of Lviv, behind the Vysoky Zamok.

The open-air museum in Lviv was founded in 1971, although the exhibition began to take shape in the interwar period at the initiative of Lviv art critic Mykhailo Dragan and Archimandrite Klymentii Sheptytskyi. The first exhibit was the wooden church of St. Nicholas of 1761, which was transported from the village of Kryvka.

Currently, the exposition of the open-air museum includes more than 110 architectural monuments from all western regions of Ukraine: 6 churches, residential buildings, a forge, a school, a sawmill, a cloth mill, a water mill and a windmill. The museum has the largest collection of sacred buildings in Europe.

The exposition is divided into six ethnographic zones, representing the daily life of residents of various Western Ukrainian regions: Boikivshchyna, Lemkivshchyna, Hutsulshchyna, Bukovyna, Pokuttia, Podillia, Zakarpattia, Lviv region. Each zone is a mini village with religious, residential and economic buildings. The interiors of most houses are available for viewing, and household items are exhibited in them.

In particular, the central exhibit of the "Hutsulshchyna" zone is a traditional Hutsul grazhda from the village of Kryvorivnia. And the oldest exhibit is a peasant hut from 1749.

Traditional Christmas and Easter celebrations take place in the Museum every year, attracting the attention of a large number of Lviv residents and guests of the city. At individual facilities, you can get acquainted with ancient crafts, including straw weaving, pysankarstvo, and playing folk instruments. Workshops for children and adults are constantly held in the open-air museum.

The interactive museum of interesting science and technology "Eureka" (Evrika) in Lviv is a children's scientific and entertainment complex that introduces visitors to the world of science in an accessible game form.

The interactive exposition covers the main branches of science: physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, astronomy, geology, etc. All exhibits are not only possible, but must be touched, moved, looked at from all sides and checked in practice. In the "Eureka" laboratory, everyone can independently conduct more than two hundred laboratory experiments in physics, chemistry and other scientific fields.

The modern Lviv planetarium of the "Eureka" museum will help you immerse yourself in the world of space discoveries and learn about the causes of the universe, the structure of the constellations, the structure of the solar system, the discovery of the Hubble space telescope and the prospects of research on the newest James Webb orbital telescope.

The virtual reality section will help you meet dinosaurs, become a spectator of the Du Soleil circus or get to a distant country. Science shows are regularly held in "Eureka" hosted by the "crazy professor" Smiley.

In addition to the rich museum exposition, there is a small shop where you can buy educational literature, interesting intellectual games and unusual souvenirs.

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).

Museum-Reserve "Rusalka Dnistrova" is a branch of the Lviv National Art Gallery. Dedicated to the first Ukrainian folklore and literary almanac "Ruskalka of Dniester", which had a great influence on the Ukrainian national revival and the development of Ukrainian literature in Galicia.

It is located in the architectural monument of the 18th century - the bell tower of the Church of the Holy Spirit. In 1939, the church itself was destroyed by a German bomb, leaving only the bell tower with a baroque finish, on which there is a unique clock, donated in the 17th century by Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky to the Manyavsky hermitage and later transported and installed on the Holy Spirit bell tower.

The museum's exhibits highlight the social, research, literary and publishing activities of the founders of the "Ruthenian Triad" (Ruska Triytsia) society, Markiian Shashkevych, Ivan Vahylevych and Yakiv Holovatsky, who published the Western Ukrainian literary almanac "Rusalka Dnistrova" in the Ukrainian vernacular since 1873.

The Mykhaylo Hrushevsky Memorial Museum in Lviv was founded in 1998 in the mansion where he and his family lived in 1902-1914.

At that time, Hrushevskyi was a professor at Lviv University, and immediately became the initiator of the creation of the Ukrainian National Democratic Party.

The museum's main exposition is devoted to the Lviv period in Hrushevsky's life. The originals of his publications, photographs, letters of the scientist, personal belongings of the Hrushevsky family are presented.

The activities of Mykhaylo Hrushevsky at the head of the Central Council of the Ukrainian People's Republic are also highlighted.

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 Oleksa Novakivsky Art Memorial Museum is located in the house where the famous Ukrainian painter has lived since 1913.

The exquisite red-brick villa, built in the late 19th century in the neo-Romanesque style by the famous Lviv architect Yulian Zakharevych, was once known as the palace of the Polish artist Yan Styka.

In 1907 it was bought by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky for the needs of the church museum. With the assistance of the Metropolitan in 1923-1935, the Oleksa Novakivsky Art School operated here - the first art school for young people in Western Ukraine, which became the leading center of artistic life in Lviv.

The artist's creative studio was located on the second floor of the house, and his family lived next door in five rooms. Since 1972, an art-memorial museum has been set up in these premises, covering the main stages of the artist's creative path.

The Oleksa Novakivsky Museum is a branch of the National Museum named after Andrey Sheptytsky in Lviv.

The Olena Kulchytska Art Memorial Museum was opened in 1971 in the artist's former apartment in Lviv, on the third floor of a residential building of the late 19th century.

According to the artist's will, all her creative heritage, apartments and personal belongings were donated to the Ukrainian people.

The exposition in four rooms reveals the artist's work in various genres and types of fine and applied arts. And also presents her as an innovator and creator of modern expression in Ukrainian art culture.

The best-preserved interior of the apartment reproduces the artist’s aesthetic preferences for the decoration of urban housing in the context of Ukrainian folk tradition and its creative interpretation.

The Olena Kulchytska Museum is a branch of the Lviv National Museum named after Andrey Sheptytsky.

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.