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.