Attractions of Lviv

A monument to Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi was opened in 2015 on the square in front of Saint George's Cathedral in Lviv.

Metropolitan Sheptytskyi is one of the most respected Ukrainian hierarchs. For more than 50 years, he was the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church with a residence in Lviv.

The 3.6-meter-high monument is made of bronze. The total height of the composition is about 5.8 meters. The sculptor is Andriy Koverko, the architects are Ihor Kuzmak and Mykhaylo Fedyk.

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 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 Lviv "Museum of Ideas" is an art gallery, exhibition space and location for artistic events, located in the very heart of Lviv - in the courtyard and basements of the former Bernardine Monastery of the 15th-17th centuries. Founded in 1992 by Lviv artist and gallerist Oles Dzyndra.

Near the entrance to the "Museum of Ideas" there is a kurdoner - a patch of land surrounded on three sides by monastery walls. Permanent projects "Bernarden Garden", "Republic of Rio" and "Temple of Trust" function here.

The museum considers its collection to be a collection of "ideas", i.e. implemented projects in the fields of philosophy, sociology, art, ecology, technology and urban planning. Among them are the festivals "KinoLev", "Lviv - the capital of handicrafts", "SkloKoko", "LeoPoltvis", etc.

The museum does not have a permanent exhibition, but various exhibitions and performances are regularly held in its halls. The project includes a restaurant of Galician cuisine "Trapezna idey" and a shop where you can buy works of art.

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, Markiyan 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 monument to Mykhaylo Hrushevskyi was erected in Lviv in 1994.

The outstanding Ukrainian historian taught at Lviv University in 1894-1914. It was in Galicia that the political activity of the future leader of the Ukrainian state, the head of the Central Council of the Ukrainian People's Republic, began.

The bronze sculpture, made by sculptors Dmytro Krvavych, Mykola Posikira, Lyubomyr Yaremchuk, is installed on a granite pedestal (architect Vasyl Kamenshchyk).

A monument to the Ukrainian composer Mykhaylo Verbytskyi, the author of the music for the national anthem of Ukraine, was opened in Lviv in 2015.

The height of the bronze sculpture is 2.9 meters. The notes of the melody of the Ukrainian national anthem are carved on the granite ceiling and a map of Ukraine is placed.

The authors of the monument are Volodymyr and Andriy Sukhorski.

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 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.