Attractions of Lviv region

The Holy Transfiguration Monastery is located in the southern part of the Old Rus settlement, which played a key role in the town-planning structure of Horodok during the times of the Galician principality.

The monastery was founded in Horodok in the 15th century, during the reign of the Polish king Vladyslav Yahaylo, as a monastery of the Catholic order of Franciscans. It was located above the lake next to the Market Square, in the immediate vicinity of the royal castle. The monastery was connected to the castle by an underground passage. According to legend, the heart of King Vladyslav Yahaylo was buried within the walls of the monastery.

After the partition of Poland in 1772, the Franciscan monastery was liquidated, barracks were placed in the cells, and the church was turned into a prison. During Soviet times, the complex fell into a dilapidated state.

In 1994, it was handed over to the Greek-Catholic monks of the Studite Statute for reconstruction and the establishment of a new monastery. Today it is the Holy Transfiguration Studite Monastery.

The Defense Church of the Holy Trinity was built in Olesko in 1481 in the Renaissance style. In 1625-1627, the then owner of Olesko, Ivan Danylovych, added two side chapels to the church, which were later consecrated in honor of the Most Holy Mother of God and Saint John the Theologian.

The church was heavily damaged during a fire in 1806, was rebuilt in 1809, but burned again in 1841 and was rebuilt in 1847. As a result of these events, the interior lost its original Gothic character and received support pillars that divide it into naves. In 1927, the church was once again modified during another restoration.

The main dominant feature of the building is the round defensive bell tower. The epitaph to Ivan Danylovych (1618) has been preserved.

In 1945, the Soviet authorities closed the temple and used it as a warehouse. In 1993, the church was handed over to the community of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. Today, is the temple of the Holy Trinity of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

The wooden church of the Holy Trinity in Zhovkva is an outstanding work of Galician folk architecture.

Included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in the category "Wooden Churches of the Carpathian Region of Ukraine".

Inside is a unique iconostasis made by local craftsmen (beginning of the 17th century) with 50 icons.

In the 1970s, the Trinity Church was restored, and in the 1990s, it was handed over to the Greek-Catholic community of the city.

The first wooden church in Yaniv (the current village of Ivano-Frankove) was built in 1614 by the founder of the city, Yan Svoshovskyi.

The temple was damaged during the Liberation War of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi. In 1670, the church was rebuilt in stone, although it remained partly wooden.

In 1741, the construction of a new stone church began, which was consecrated under the title of the Holy Trinity in 1774. In the 19th century, the wooden belfry was replaced by a stone one.

In 1946, the Soviet authorities closed the church, turning it into a warehouse. In 1992, after Ukraine gained independence, the Holy Trinity Church was returned to the Catholic community.

The Horodok City Hall in the classicist style was built in 1832 as the premises of the Horodok magistrate.

The two-story U-shaped building is crowned by a clock tower with small balconies, which houses a clock with four dials (year 2004) and the coat of arms of the city. Previously, the tower was completed by a pointed roof with a weather vane.

The building of the Horodotsk town hall is still used for its intended purpose - the Horodok City Council meets in it.

The first floor also houses the Horodok Historical and Local Lore Museum (2010).

A wide exposition of archaeological finds, household items and folk clothing is presented.

Separate stands are dedicated to the periods of the Liberation War of Bohdan Khmelnytsky (Battle of Horodok in 1655) and the liberation struggle of 1918-1920 (the Volchukhiv operation of the UGA).

In Pustomyty, they call the "House with lions" a palace in the style of classicism, located in a park - a monument of garden and park art of the 19th century.

There is no reliable information about the construction of the palace. Presumably, the manor was founded at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, when Pustomyty were owned by Yakub Dominskyi. The building is two-story, rectangular with an attic and a baroque roof. The main facade is decorated with a risalite with a pediment. The park facade has a faceted risalite, built on a terrace.

The palace building was rebuilt in the 1920s, after which it lost its light and elegant silhouette. It was then that lions were installed in front of the entrance. The interiors of two octagonal halls on the first and second floors have been preserved.

Currently, the "House with Lions" houses some departments of the Pustomyty administration.

The museum of the famous Ukrainian Baroque sculptor Johann Georg Pinsel (Ivan Heorhiy Pinzel) is located in the former church of the Poor Clares in Lviv, which is an architectural monument of the XVII century.

Modest in architecture, but luxuriously painted from the middle, the church was built in 1607 by Pavlo Rymlyanyn and Bernard Avelides on the site of an old chapel of nuns of the Poor Clares of the Bernardine Order. Since then, the Renaissance elements of the side facade of the church from Lychakivska Street have been preserved. In the 1740s the church underwent a Baroque reconstruction, and during the restoration of 1938-1939 the tower was completed. The interiors of the church are decorated with paintings by Stanislav Stroyinsky made in the XVIII century, some later plots in the southern nave belong to the brush of Tadeush Popel.

Since 1996, the Church of the Poor Clares houses the Museum of Baroque Sculpture of Johann Georg Pinsel, which is called "Ukrainian Michelangelo". Here is the richest collection of unique baroque sculptures by master, which were found and saved in the 1970s. The Ivan Heorhiy Pinzel Museum is a department of the Lviv National Art Gallery named after Borys Voznytsky.

After the reconstruction in 2021, the renovated Pinzel Sculpture Museum was given a completely barrier-free space. Tactile strips are laid from the public transport stop and in the middle of the building. Sound beacons are installed at the entrance. The museum has an inclusive box office and a mnemonic at the entrance. Internal stairs are duplicated by a lift. Information plates duplicated in Braille are installed near the exhibits. Tactile copies of the most important exhibits are offered to visually impaired visitors. Audio guides and audio description available. The staff has been trained to work with all categories of visitors.

The Kamyanka waterfall on the river of the same name is located on the territory of the National Nature Park "Skolivski Beskydy" near the village of Kamyanka.

Water falls from a height of 7 meters from massive stone boulders in a picturesque gap in the mountain range in two streams separated by a rock ledge.

The road to the Kamyanka waterfall is a source of "living water" - hydrogen sulphide mineral water, similar to the Truskavets "Naftusya", which can be used for preventive and therapeutic purposes.

On the opposite side of the road is Lake Zhuravlyne, which is also called "Dead" because no fish live in cold water with a high content of hydrogen sulfide. Routes to all these natural attractions are marked with pointers.

There is a souvenir bazaar and a large meadow where you can pitch a tent camp near the Kamyanka waterfall. Gazebos for relaxation are arranged above the stream. On hot weekends there is a large flow of tourists.

The Latin Cathedral is the main church of the Roman Catholic Church in Lviv. The official name is the Metropolitan Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Lviv Archdiocese. Unofficially, Lviv residents call it simply the Cathedral.

It was built and rebuilt by Lviv city planners for 400 years. The first stone was laid by the Polish king Kazymyr the Great in 1360. After the restoration of 1760-1778, Gothic forms gave way to the then fashionable Baroque.

In the cathedral there was an icon of the Mother of God the Merciful ("The Beautiful Star of the City of Lviv"), the original of which is now kept in Vavel in Krakow. Its exact copy was made for Lviv and in 2001 Pope Ivan Paul II crowned it.

The main organ, stained glass windows by Yan Mateyko and others have been preserved. In the eastern wall, you can see the cores, reminiscent of the Turkish siege of 1672, as well as a projectile left over from the Ukrainian-Polish war of 1918-1919.

At the end of the 18th century, a cemetery with numerous chapels was located around the church, of which only the most valuable have survived: the Boim chapel (1609-1615) and the Campian chapel (1619).

The Latin Cathedral is the Sanctuary of the Mother of God the Merciful and Divine Mercy.

The palace of Lviv patrician, rich merchant of Greek origin Kostyantyn Kornyakt on Rynok Square is a pearl of residential Renaissance architecture of Lviv, an architectural monument of national importance.

The palace was built in 1580 by architect Petro Barbon with the participation of his student Pavlo Rymlianyn. For some time it was owned by the Sobieski royal family, receiving the second name "Royal Townhouse".

It is in the Kornyakt Palace is the famous Italian (Venetian) courtyard on the model of the Renaissance Italian cortile, which surrounds the inner perimeter with open galleries under the arcades. The gallery presents an exhibition of sculptures from the Lviv Historical Museum, in particular "Justice and Justice" - a shameful pillar (pranger), which stood on the front in front of Lviv City Hall.

Now the administration of the Lviv Historical Museum is located in the palace. The permanent exposition of the department "Kornyakt Palace" presents the history of the house through the fate of its inhabitants in the context of the history of the city, region, Europe.

The "Royal Chambers" are traditionally called the four former ceremonial halls of the royal residence, located on the second floor of the building. Today, the preserved interiors of the early 19th century feature paintings, sculptures, samples of salon furniture, clocks, porcelain, musical instruments, ancient European orders, and rare memorials. One of the most popular exhibits is a mysterious black chair in the form of a winged dragon. Usually, at the end of the tour you can hear the live sound of the music box Symphonion.

There is a café with outdoor tables and an antique shop in the Italian courtyard.

The departments of the Lviv Historical Museum are:
- Arsenal Museum;
- Lviv History Museum;
- History of Ukraine Museum;
- Palazzo Bandinelli;
- Ukraine Liberation Struggle Museum;
- History of Science and Technology Museum;
- Literary Lviv Museum;
- Roman Shukhevych Museum;
- Yevhen Konovalets Museum.

One of the most interesting examples of Lviv Renaissance architecture in the ensemble of Rynok Square is the Lorentsovych house, better known as the "Black House" (Chorna Kamyanytsia). The black color sharply distinguishes this building from the other buildings of the square and creates a sharp contrast with it.

The "Black House" was built in 1589 in the style of the late Renaissance by the architect Petro Krasovsky on the order of Sofia Ganel.

During the XVI-XIX centuries, the house changed owners many times, as well as completed and rebuilt. Initially, the building was not black, but under the influence of precipitation, the sandstone masonry was greatly darkened, and now it is specially painted black.

Back in 1926, the city bought the "Black House" from the last owner and opened the Lviv History Museum, which is now a department of the Lviv Historical Museum. The almost 800-year history of the city is represented on three floors by authentic objects of XIV-XX centuries: symbolic keys to the city, seals of the magistrate, inaugural chains of the president and mayor, benches from the conference hall, portraits of city leaders, coats of arms of Lviv in different historical periods. You can see a model of princely Lviv of the XIII-XIV centuries and a model of the Renaissance town hall.

In the courtyard and the first floor there is a Lapidarium - an exposition of stone monuments of Lviv: carved from stone architectural and sculptural fragments, parts of old monuments, epitaphs, etc. In total, about 50 samples of stone sculpture from ancient, mostly non-existent, buildings in Lviv.

National University "Lviv Polytechnic" was founded in 1844, it was the first academic technical school in Ukraine.

The building of the Technical Academy was built in 1877 by the architect Yulian Zakhariyevych, who became its rector. The interiors of the magnificent building are richly decorated with sculptures and moldings. Ten paintings of the assembly hall were made based on sketches by Yan Mateyko.

Currently, Lviv Polytechnic has the status of a national university, 30,000 students study here.

Excursions of the Main Building of the University are conducted, during which visitors are introduced to the history of the institution, unique interiors, masterpieces of painting and sculpture, the Machine Hall with mechanisms and equipment from different eras, the 19th century student library, the oldest observatory in Ukraine, and the Museum of the History of the Polytechnic.

The Museum of Memory of Victims of Stalinist Repressions was founded in the village of Shchyrets in 2009 in the former courtyard of a Roman Catholic priest, where in June 1941, employees of the NKVD district department executed 26 innocent local residents.

The museum complex consists of several objects - a memorial stele, a chapel, a cross with a grave, a demonstration hiding place of UPA soldiers and the museum itself. Materials for the exhibition were provided by eyewitnesses of those terrible events from the surrounding villages.

The main exhibition of the Museum of Memory of Victims of Stalinist Repressions is located in the premises of a former stable, built at the end of the 19th century, in which the NKVD set up a torture chamber in 1941.

The first hall of the museum is dedicated to the innocent civilians of Shchyrets and its environs who were tortured by the Stalinist regime. Separate sections of the exhibition are dedicated to the history of the liberation movement in the region, the activities of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen and fighters of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army - clothing (embroidery, uniforms) and objects (printing machine, guns) used by the soldiers are presented. In addition, the exhibition introduces materials about the clergy, intelligentsia and Ukrainian nationalists repressed during the Stalinist era, and also explores the life stories of local residents who were repressed to Siberia.

In the second hall, called "Ukrainian Hut", antique household items that were once used in the household are collected, images, embroidered towels and shirts, "Crimean" scarves, etc. are stored.

You can see how the soldiers of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army lived during the liberation struggle in a specially equipped hiding place. Next to the hiding place is a memorial stele to the soldiers of the OUN-UPA, erected at the expense of patrons.

The new exhibition of the museum of memory of the victims of Stalinist repressions is dedicated to the heroes of the Heavenly Hundred and the Russian-Ukrainian war. On August 29, 2024, on the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine who died in the struggle for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, the Heroes' Memorial Alley was opened in the village of Shchyrets.

The Lychakiv cemetery-museum, located near the center of Lviv, is more like a landscape park.

The cemetery was officially founded in 1784, although it existed on this site as early as the 16th century. The territory of 40 hectares is divided into 86 fields, on which there are almost 3.5 thousand monuments and compositions of the work of famous sculptors and architects. Ivan Franko, Solomiya Krushelnytska, Mariya Konopnytska, Volodymyr Ivasyuk and others are buried at the Lychakiv Cemetery.

In 1991, the Lychakiv cemetery became a historical-memorial museum-reserve.

Many controversies in the 1990s caused the restoration of the "Cemetery of the Eagles" memorial, destroyed during the Soviet era, in honor of Polish soldiers who died in 1918-1920 in the Ukrainian-Polish and Soviet-Polish wars. The memorial was officially opened in 2005 at the same time as the memorial to the fallen soldiers of the Ukrainian Galician Army.

The Museum-Kryivka of OUN-UPA Soldiers near the village of Havarechchyna was solemnly opened for the 65th anniversary of the UPA in 2007. It was at this place that on the night of February 17-18, 1947, Ivan Kernytsky (pseudonym "Krylatiy"), the representative of the regional district of the OUN, died in a battle with the Moscow invaders.

In a forest kryivka near Havarechchyna, the insurgents were preparing training materials and anti-election propaganda literature. A thorough reconstruction of the hiding place demonstrates the situation of a typical kryivka and the daily life of UPA fighters. The Gallery of Heroes was also opened, where portraits of fighters for the freedom and independence of Ukraine are presented and the history of the struggle of the UPA for the Ukrainian state is told.

A memorial complex was built nearby, a symbolic grave was filled and an oak cross with a commemorative tablet was installed.

Excursions are conducted by employees of the "Northern Podillya" National Nature Park.