Attractions of Lviv district

The Princely Church of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker is the oldest monument of monumental architecture in Lviv.

Apparently, the church was built as a burial place for Halician princes, and was the main spiritual center of the Lviv Ruthenians. The first mention of the Church of Saint Nicholas dates back to 1292. Back in princely times, the church served not only as a temple, but also as a center of social and political life.

It was located at the foot of the High Castle Hill (Vysoky Zamok), next to the Old Market square (Stary rynok), which was the center of the lower town in the early Middle Ages. The thickness of the walls of the temple also indicates the defensive importance of the building.

The Basilian Monastery of Saint Onuphrius in Lviv is an architectural monument of the Middle Ages. According to some sources, it was founded during the reign of Lev Danylovych, the son of the city's founder, Danylo Halytskyi.

The stone buildings of the Saint Onuphrius Church, the Trinity Chapel-bell tower and the monastery cells were built in 1505 by Prince Kostyantyn Ostrozky.

The architecture combines the traditions of Ukrainian sacred architecture with Renaissance and Baroque forms. During the hostilities, the monastery complex played the role of a defensive structure.

Ivan Fedorov, the first printer, was buried in the monastery cemetery in 1583.

The monastery of Saint Onuphrius belongs to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

The church of Saint Paraskeva in Zubra was built in 1833 as the church of Saint Michael the Archangel on the site of the old Catholic church, known since the beginning of the 18th century, when the absolute majority of the village's population was Catholics.

After the Second World War, the church, rededicated by the Greek Catholics, was handed over to the Orthodox community, but in 1990 it returned to the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

The Church of Saint Paraskeva Pyatnytsya in Lviv is one of the oldest churches in Lviv. The defense-type church is located at the foot of the High Castle on the Volyn road (Pidzamche district).

The temple was built at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. It underwent significant reconstruction in 1644 after a fire. The architecture combines Gothic and late Renaissance elements.

The greatest value of the church of Saint Paraskeva is a masterpiece of Lviv artists and carvers of the 16th-17th centuries - a five-row Renaissance iconostasis (70 icons) and a baroque royal gate, completed with a crucifix with figures on the sides.

The Defense Church of Saint Stanislav the Bishop was founded in the Dunaiv in 1485 by Lviv Archbishop Yan "Vontroba" Stsheletsky.

Initially, the church was Gothic, which can be seen even now by the arrow-shaped portals and the Gothic white stone window. The church destroyed by the Tatars was rebuilt in 1585 by Archbishop Yan Solikovsky, as a result of which it acquired its current Renaissance forms. The church was reconstructed several times, the interiors were painted in 1766.

During Soviet times, the shrine was closed, but in 1992, after Ukraine gained independence, the church was returned to the Dunaiv Catholic community. Today, the Church of Saint Stanislav is served by the Society of Saint Frantsysk Salezky.

The Church of Saint Stanislav was founded in Shchyrets in the 14th century, and was rebuilt in its present form in 1556.

The temple burned several times. The last restoration was carried out in 1916 according to the project of Voytsekh Brettner.

The temple is rectangular in plan, single-nave, with a three-tiered tower under a tent on the western facade. The entrance to the church is decorated with a finely crafted portal. Once there were two loopholes above the choirs, which testified to the defensive nature of the building. Opposite the main entrance is a two-story bell tower.

The Church of Saint Stanislav is an active church of the Lviv Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine.

The Greek-Catholic Church of Saint Volodymyr and the Blessed Martyr Father Omelyan Kovch is consecrated in honor of the late martyr of the Greek-Catholic Church, who from 1922 to 1942 was the abbot of the Church of Saint Nicholas in Peremyshliany.

During the German occupation, he saved thousands of Jews, for which he was sent to a concentration camp, where he continued to perform the duties of a priest until his death.

In 2001, during the visit of Pope John Paul II to Ukraine, Father Omelyan Kovch was beatified.

The ancient defense church of Saints Nicholas and Anna in Bibrka, according to one version, was founded in 1402 by the legendary Polish knight Zavish Charnyi, the hero of Henryk Senkevych`s novel "Crusaders".

In the upper part of the walls of the western volume, loopholes have been preserved. The temple was destroyed during the invasion of the Tatars in 1621, but after some time it was restored. After thorough reconstruction in 1914-1922, the Nicolas church lost its original appearance. During the reconstruction, the western part of the building (XVII century) was preserved, the other parts were built anew.

The architecture of the Church of Saints Nicholas and Anna is extremely laconic. The only decorative element enlivening the western facade is a dull arcade on the pediment.

The Church of Saints Olha and Elizaveta is the highest church in Lviv (85 meters), competing in height with the Cathedral of Saint George. Previously - the church of Saint Elizaveta of Hungary.

The huge neo-Gothic church of Saint Elizaveta was built at the beginning of the 20th century. According to legend, it was named after the popular empress Elizaveta (Sisi), the wife of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Frants-Yosyf I. The architect Teodor-Maryan Talovsky used many elements of French and North German Gothic architecture: high pointed spiers, lancets, a vertical interior space. The portal is decorated with a sculptural composition by Petro Voytovych "Crucifixion with Adaptation", the interiors were worked on by the Lviv master Kazymyr Sikhulskyi.

During the Second World War, the temple was damaged, then closed. Since 1991, it belongs to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, rededicated as the Church of Saints Olha and Elizaveta.

The Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in the city of Komarno was founded in 1848 on the site of an old wooden church.

After the First World War, the Peter and Paul Church was reconstructed in 1929 according to the project of the architect Vasyl Nahirniy.

The eclectic palace of the Semensky-Levytsky count family in Lviv was built in 1849 on the site of an old manor of the 18th century.

The ambassador of the Galician Diet, Konstyantyn Semenskyi, ordered the project from the Prussian architect Fryderyk Bauman. In 1877, the architect Otto Wagner rebuilt the palace in the French Baroque style by order of the privy councilor Stanislav Kostka Semenskyi-Levytskyi. The facade and interiors were decorated by the sculptor Petro-Vitalis Harasymovych.

The palace has side wings and a large courtyard. To the east of the main gate is the entrance to the stables and arena, decorated with two horse heads (Stanislav Kostka Semenskyi-Levytskyi was the president of the Galician Horse Breeding Commission).

Today, the building houses a boarding school.

The Solomiya Krushelnytska Music and Memorial Museum is located in Lviv in the former house of the singer, which she bought in 1903, at the zenith of her creative career.

The museum was opened on the initiative of her niece Odarka Bandrovska in 1989 after the restoration of the house.

The singer's personal belongings, concert dresses, photos and documents are collected in the recreated interiors of the rooms. The exposition tells about Krushelnytska's childhood, the history of her artistic activity in Lviv, Vienna, Paris, Warsawa, Milan and other opera houses around the world.

Concerts are regularly held in the music salon of the museum.

Arena Lviv Stadium was opened in 2011 as part of preparations for the European Football Championship Euro-2012.

This is one of the newest stadiums in Europe, which was built taking into account all UEFA requirements. The capacity of the stadium is almost 35,000 seats, including 14 VIP boxes. The construction of the arena seats is designed in such a way as to create the maximum effect of the presence of spectators on the field.

"Arena Lviv" has a natural lawn with modern systems of drainage, heating and automatic watering.

During mass events, guests are served by 19 fast food outlets located on the promenade, as well as 7 fast food outlets selling food and beverages on the outer perimeter of the stadium.

The arena has 4,500 parking spaces, of which 100 are for people with disabilities.

Excursions are held by prior appointment, during which visitors are shown the playing area, conference hall, footballers' block (dressing rooms, showers and massage rooms), flash zone, substitute benches, media tribunes, fan sectors, VIP area (restaurant and sky boxes) and the hall of the history of the stadium. Among the "highlights" of the excursion is the opportunity to sit in the seat of the famous football player Ronaldo, try on a T-shirt with the autograph of Andriy Shevchenko, look at the 3D model of the stadium or take a photo with Svyatoslav Vakarchuk.

The Memorial Museum of Stanislav Lyudkevych was opened in 1995 in the composer's house in Lviv on the initiative of his wife, art critic Zenoviya Shtunder.

The two-story building was built in the second half of the 1950s. Ms. Zenoviya allocated the second floor of the house she inherited for the museum and began working at the museum as a senior research associate.

The interiors of the composer's office and his bedroom have been preserved in two exhibition rooms. In the third room, editions of the composer's musical works, family photos, and objects of fine art are exhibited.

The Stanislav Lyudkevych Memorial Museum is a department of the Solomiya Krushelnytska Memorial Music Museum. An artistic memorial table with a high-relief of the composer is installed on the facade of the building.

Stare Selo Castle is one of the largest strongholds of Galicia.

A powerful stone fortification in the middle of a swampy area was built in 1584-1589 by the princes of Ostrozky to protect the south-eastern approaches to Lviv.

Architect Amvrosiy Prykhylny used the style of the Eastern European late renaissance. The castle with an area of about 2 hectares was surrounded by 8-meter walls in the shape of an irregular triangle, at the corners of which there were six defense towers 14-16 meters high with baroque carvings (3 of them have been preserved).

In 1648, the castle was taken by the troops of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, in 1672 it withstood the Turkish siege.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the Stare Selo Castle belonged to Adam Mykolay Senyavskyi, who moved his arsenal here from Lviv. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was owned by the Chartoriysky and Potocki. The last owner, Alfred Potocki, turned the castle into a brewery, after which it began to decline.

In 2010, the architectural monument was given a long-term concession to a private investor under the conditions of restoration and creation of a recreational complex, but the ruins of the castle still remain in a neglected state. In 2023, the court terminated the concession agreement with the private company and returned the Stare Selo Castle to state ownership.

Access is free.