Attractions of Ivano-Frankivsk

The fortified palace-castle in Stanislav (Stanisławów, now Ivano-Frankivsk) was founded in 1672 by the founder of the city, the Halician mayor Andrzej Potocki, as his residence and the citadel of the Stanislaviv fortress. Before that, the wooden hunting castle of his father Stanisław "Rewera" Potocki served as a residence.

The first stage of construction was managed by the architect François Corassini, and after 1679 by the architect Karol Benoît. The castle consisted of a three-story palace surrounded by defensive ramparts and bastions, side service buildings and a park in the center of the castle yard. Only the front palace fence, which separated the castle from the city, with an entrance gate decorated with knightly symbols, was well preserved.

Polish King Jan III Sobieski, Transylvanian Prince Francis II Rákóczi and others visited the Potoski Palace.

Until now, the main complex of buildings has lost its original appearance, as it has been repeatedly rebuilt and adapted to the needs of various military departments. Until 2004, a military hospital was located on the territory.

In 2017, the Potocki Palace was transferred to the ownership of the Ivano-Frankivsk city hromada. First of all, the entrance gate was restored to its original appearance. The restoration of the palace buildings has begun. Artistic actions, performances and other events began to be held on the ordered territory of the architectural monument.

In 2024, the charitable foundation "Palace" Innovative Creations Space opened the "City and Weapons" Interactive Museum in the premises of the Potocki Palace. The exhibition reveals the theme of the life of the city in times of war: from its foundation through the First and Second World Wars to the present day. Replicas of the most common types of weapons are presented. of each period in physical and digital form, as well as copies of uniforms of those times. With the help of digital devices, you can view old maps, archival materials, old postcards, videos from the period of the First and Second World Wars.

On the opposite side, you can see the remains of castle ramparts and bastions, on one of which the Ascension monument with a 3-meter sculpture of Jesus Christ (2001) was installed.

The Archcathedral and Metropolitan Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ is the main Greek-Catholic shrine of Ivano-Frankivsk.

The cathedral was founded in 1720 as a Jesuit church, but due to construction errors, the original building had to be completely dismantled and rebuilt in 1752. In the middle of the 19th century, the temple was handed over to the Greek Catholics and it became a cathedral.

In 1899-1890, Bishop Andrey Sheptytsky of Stanislavsky served as the rector of the cathedral before his appointment as Metropolitan of the UGCC.

The Resurrection Cathedral is considered a model of the Austro-Bavarian architectural school with clear features of classicism. At the same time, the tops of the towers are made in the style of Hutsul wooden architecture.

In the interior there is a large five-tiered iconostasis, made by the famous Ukrainian artists Modest Sosenko, Yuliush Makarivskyi and Antin Monastyrskyi.

The building of the former Jesuit monastery with the collegium, which is now occupied by the medical institute, has been preserved nearby.

In 1993, a high-relief of Andrey Sheptytskyi was installed on the facade of the cathedral, and in 1997, sculptures of Princess Olha and Volodymyr the Great as patron saint of Rus, as well as the blessed martyr Hrihoriy Khomnshin, bishop of Stanislaviv (1904-1945), were placed in the niches.

The Arts of Prykarpattya Museum in Ivano-Frankivsk is the largest treasury of sacred, fine and decorative art of Ivano-Frankivsk region, whose collection includes more than 15 thousand works of art.

The institution opened in 1980 as the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Art Museum. It has since been housed in a Roman Catholic church.

The Collegiate (Parish) Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saints Andrew and Stanislav is an architectural monument of national importance, one of the most valuable and ancient architectural and spiritual monuments of Ivano-Frankivsk. Built in 1672-1703 by French architects Fransua Korassini and Karol Benua to order the city's founders Andriy Potocki as the ancestral tomb of this magnate dynasty (Potocki's coat of arms "Pylyava" is located on the second floor on the east wall in front of the buttresses).

The three-nave basilica with a transept is made in the Baroque style with elements of the Renaissance. The interiors of the church have preserved frescoes by Erazm Fabyanskyi, which in Soviet times determined his fate to become an art museum.

Now the exhibition presents samples of Halician iconography and Baroque sculpture, the works of classics of Western Ukrainian painting: Kornyl Ustyanovych, Ivan Trush, Yaroslav Pstrak, Yulian Pankevych, Oleksa Novakivsky, Osyp Sorokhtey, Olena Kulchytska, as well as the works of Polish, Austrian, German and Italian masters of the 18th century.

The most valuable part of the collection are considered to be six sculptures by the outstanding Ukrainian sculptor Ivan Heorhiy Pinzel.

The Cathedral of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin is better known to residents of Ivano-Frankivsk as the "Armenian Church" or "Blue Church".

A tall building with two towers in the mature Baroque style next to the market square was erected in the 18th century on the site of a wooden church in honor of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God (crowned in 1937, now located in Poland). Construction began after the Armenian community of the then Stanislaviv received the right to self-government. Since the Armenians did not have enough funds for construction, the owner of the city, Yuzef Potoski, obliged the Jewish community, which competed with the Armenian community in trade, to help with financing.

Two restorations in the 19th and 20th centuries significantly changed the appearance of the building.

Wooden sculpture, most likely the work of master Matviy Poleyovskyi, was used in the interior design. On the walls are frescoes made by Yan Soletskyi. The interiors were completely preserved during the Soviet times due to the fact that the museum of the history of religion and atheism was located here.

In 1990, the church was returned to believers. Today it is the Holy Intercession Cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

A fragment of a defensive wall with a bastion is all that remains of the ancient city fortifications of the Stanislaviv Fortress in modern Ivano-Frankivsk.

The fortress was founded in 1662 by the Kyiv voivode Andriy Potocki according to the project of Fransua Korassini. The first fortifications were wooden, but in 1672 they helped the city withstand the Turkish siege. In 1679-1682, the Stanislaviv fortress was significantly strengthened under the guidance of the architect Sharl Benua. The city was surrounded on all sides by defensive moats, ramparts with eight bastions and stone fortress walls up to 10 meters high. The fortifications were almost completely dismantled in the 19th century at the request of the Austrian authorities.

Currently, the "Bastion" gallery is located in the casemates of the restored bastion - a shopping and entertainment complex with a terrace for walks, souvenir shops, boutiques, a cafe and a restaurant. There is a permanent exhibition of sculptures, paintings and photographs.

Panske Brewery was opened in Ivano-Frankivsk in 2011.

Two boilers of 500 liters have been installed. Unpasteurized beer of four varieties is produced: Premium, Pils, Hefe-Weissbier, Dunkel. The product is bottled in glass bottles and kegs.

By prior agreement, it is possible to conduct tours of the brewery, familiarize yourself with the technological process and taste beer in the branded pub "Panske" at the brewery.

The private museum of family professions was created in Ivano-Frankivsk in 2005 by journalist Roman Fabryka.

The exposition tells about 150 different professions that the collector's family has been engaged in over the past 200 years. Among them were beekeepers, architects, blacksmiths, doctors, builders, geologists, miners, musicians, agronomists, zootechnicians, teachers, gardeners and others.

A variety of professional tools, devices, mechanisms and devices are presented - from a plow to a computer.

The territory behind the Potocki Palace in Ivano-Frankivsk is known as the "Hetman's Ramparts".

It was part of the city fortifications - the Stanislav fortress. In order for the castle of the owners of the city to be higher than other city fortifications, artificial ramparts with two bastions were built. Walls were built on the embankments, which were demolished at the beginning of the 19th century, and in 1876, the "Hetman's Ramparts" square was built on this site.

Today it is a small park in which the Ascension monument is installed, the central element of which is a sculpture of Jesus Christ.

The "Art na Mur" Gallery of Contemporary Art opened in 2012 in the Bastion Fortress Gallery complex on the territory of the Stanislaviv Fortress in the historical center of Ivano-Frankivsk.

The gallery hosts exhibitions of works of art by artists from Ivano-Frankivsk and other cities of Ukraine, including classical painting and avant-garde.

The institution offers organization and holding of exhibitions, sale of paintings.

The monument to Adam Mitskevych in Ivano-Frankivsk is one of two monuments to the outstanding Polish poet erected in Ukraine for the centenary of his birth (the other is in Lviv).

Initially, the figure was carved from pink marble and was 2.3 meters high. The words in Polish were engraved on the pedestal: "To Adam Mitskevych in the century since his birthday - citizens of the city of Stanislaviv. 1898."

During the First World War, the monument was damaged. In 1930, a new figure was installed, this time cast in bronze. The Polish board was replaced with a new one: "Adam Mitskevych, 1798-1855". In this form, the monument has been preserved to this day.

The Roman Catholic Church of Christ the King in Ivano-Frankivsk is located in the suburb of Hirka. It was built in 1925-1939 according to the project of the architect Stanislav Trelya.

In 1961-1989, the shrine was closed by the Soviet authorities and was used as a warehouse.

In 1989, the future bishop Father Yan Olshansky consecrated the church. During 1990-1999, the temple was restored. An organ brought from the Netherlands is installed in the Church of Christ the King. There is also a copy of the "image" of the Mother of God of Chenstokhova (Belz) brought from Poland.

"Stanislaviv Sea" - this is what the current city lake of Ivano-Frankivsk was called when it appeared in 1955.

The history of the construction of the city lake is as follows: on the territory of the former Potocki menagerie, where the Polish nobility and local residents used to love to hunt, a number of ponds were dug back in Stalin's times, which were connected by locks to the Bystrytsia-Solotvynska river. One day, the floodgates were opened, water filled the reservoirs, and as a result, a "sea" was formed.

Currently, the city lake is one of the main recreation areas of Ivano-Frankivsk. The most romantic place is the bridge leading to the "Island of Love". There is a boat station.

The Monastery of the Fathers of the Order of Saint Basil the Great was founded in Ivano-Frankivsk before the Second World War. The first stone for the construction of the monastery was laid in 1936, and the construction was completed in 1938.

The Church of Christ the King was built according to the plans of the Lviv architect Oleksandr Pezhansky, and the general supervision of the works was carried out by the famous Ukrainian builder Taras Hrytsak. The temple was built in the Byzantine style with five domes like Sophia Cathedral.

In 1946, the monastery was closed by the Soviet authorities, and the church housed an archive.

In 1990, the complex of the monastery of Christ the King was returned to the Basilian Fathers.

The tract of Demyaniv Laz on the outskirts of Ivano-Frankivsk is the site of a mass shooting of prisoners of the NKVD prison.

The executions were carried out before the retreat of the Soviet troops in 1941. During excavations, human bones were found here and they were able to identify 524 individuals. It was possible to establish the identity of 22 people, work in the archives of the SBU made it possible to determine the names of another 400 executed.

In 1998, the "Demyaniv Laz" memorial complex was opened near the graves. The museum was opened in 2009.

The name of the tract is related to the name of one of the local peasants, Demyan from the village of Zahvizdya, who owned a plot of the Posichnyansky forest here.

The memorial complex "Demyaniv Laz" is a branch of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Museum of the Liberation Struggle named after Stepan Bandera.

The "Heroes of the Dnipro" Museum in Ivano-Frankivsk is a branch of the National Military Historical Museum of Ukraine. It was founded in 1966 as the Museum of Combat Glory of the 38th Combined Arms Army, which in 1943 took part in the forcing of the Dnipro north of Kyiv and the creation of the Liutizh bridgehead.

The central element of the exposition is the diorama "Experience on the Dnipro", which shows combat actions during the crossing of the river in September 1943. Before entering the demonstration hall, visitors pass through a stylized headquarters dugout used by the commander of the 38th Army, Colonel General Kyrylo Moskalenko.

The main exhibition in 12 halls highlights the military history and traditions of Prykarpattia much more widely - from the times of the Galicia-Volyn state to the present day. Separate chapters are devoted to the combat path of the Legion of the Ukrainian SSR in Stanislaviv region during the First World War, the formation of the UGA during the Ukrainian-Polish war of 1918-1919, and the participation of natives of Ivano-Frankivsk region in the Russian-Ukrainian war.

The exhibition is complemented by a rich collection of samples of small arms, engineering and artillery ammunition, and means of communication.

In 2018, a stationary exhibition dedicated to the centenary of the proclamation of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic was opened.