At the end of 1998, the Old Town of the Galician city of Lviv (Lwów in Polish, L’vov in Russian, Lemberg in German and Leopolis in Latin), which has completely preserved its Medieval planning scheme, has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site; additional information can be found in our history of Lviv.
Rynok Square and its Town Hall tower
A sightseeing tour of the Galician city of Lviv should start at Rynok Square. The Medieval market square features a 65-meter tower, which offers the best views of the Old Town.
The first, Gothic, wooden town hall was built shortly after 1357, when the Polish King Kazimierz III had granted city rights to Lviv. It burnt down in 1381 and was rebuilt it stone shortly afterwards. The present-day tower goes back to the work of the three architects Markle, Tresher and Vondrashek, who built the clock tower in the Viennese Classical style from 1830 until 1835. It collapsed during the 1848-revolution and was repaired in 1851. Since 1939, the Rynok Square Town Hall houses the Lviv city council.
The term “Rynok” originates from the German word “Ring” (ring, circle) and designates the typical, German central square construction in medieval times. The original market square was the work of German architects who, in the middle of the 14th century, were commissioned by the Polish King Kazimierz III to build a state-of-the-art town. The wooden houses at Rynok Square burnt down in a fire and were replaced by stone-structures. The 44 buildings of the present-day market square were built between the 16th and the 20th century by architects from Lombardy, southern Switzerland and Austria. The medieval constructions were made in the Italian Renaissance style, enriched with local architectural traditions, including Ukrainian features. The most recent architectural style represented at Rynok Square is 20th century Modernism.
Among the famous houses surrounding the Market Square is Rynok Square 2, the Renaissance style Bandinelli Palace, which used to be the property of Roberto Bandinelli from Florence, who had founded the first postal office in Lviv in 1629. Rynok Square 4, Black House, was built at the end of the 16th century in the Renaissance style for the Italian tax-collector Tomas Alberti. Since 1926, the house hosts a branch of Lviv History Museum. Rynok Square 6, King John IIII Sobieski Palace, was built for the Greek merchant Konstanty Kornyakt in 1580 and purchased by Jakub Sobieski in 1640, from whom King John III Sobieski inherited it later; today, it is part of Lviv History Museum. Rynok Square 14, Venetian House, is a Renaissance-style house built for the Consul of Venice, Antonio Massari. Rynok Square 24, House of Giebi, was built in the Renaissance-style and remodeled in 1920 in the style of Modernism. In 1707, the Russian Tsar peter the Great stayed at House of Giebl.
View of the old town of Lviv in 2007. Photo by Wikipedia user Lestat (Jan Mehlich) / Wikimedia Commons. Books about Lviv / Lvov / Lemberg / Leopolis from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de.
Kornyakt Palace at 6 Rynok Square
Kornyakt Palace at 6 Rynok Square dates back to 1580. The Italian-style Renaissance palace belonged to the wealthiest citizen in the entire history of Lviv, the Greek merchant Konstanty (Constantine) Kornyakt. Born on the island of Crete, he settled in Lviv in the 16th century. He controlled the wine trade in the entire Black Sea coastal area, and he was a good friend of the Polish King Sigismund II Augustus.
Kornyakt Palace was built by the Italian architect Peter Barbone on the site of two older houses. Downstairs was the wine cellar. After the death of Constantine Kornyakt, the Polish King Wladyslaw IV Vasa stayed at the palace. In 1640, it was purchased by Jakub Sobieski, the Polish nobleman, military leader and and father of King John III Sobieski, who later inherited the property.
In 1908, the Sobieski Palace was sold to the city of Lviv and converted in the Jan III Museum. After World War II, it became a Soviet Museum. In 1993, it became the first National Museum and, at present, is part of Lviv History Museum. A visit is worthwhile. I took a guided tour.
I was told that the son of Konstanty Kornyakt lost the palace in a high-stakes game of cards. According to some accounts, it was later confiscated by Jakub Sobieski. During and after the Second World War, many pieces of museum were stolen and lost. The Collection comprised some 340,000 artworks. Unfortunately, of the time of Sobieski, only two wood-carved sculptures by a French artist are left. According to the tradition, those wooden sculptures normally would have been burnt after the death of the owner, but luckily, they survived.
In the same room, you can admire 18th century Rococo chairs, 19th century chairs with their original fabrics and an 18th century silver mirror from Venice. The parquet floor is original, untouched, dates from 1783 and is made of 18 different types of wood. The stucco ceiling was made in 1816. Among the many other valuable artworks are an English, 18th century bureau with 60 drawers (including 3 secret ones) and a portrait of the wife of French King Louis XV, who happened to be Marie Leszcyńska, the daughter of the Polish King Stanislaw I (born in Lviv) and the longest-serving queen consort in the history of France.
Among the many other interesting items are a bust of of Napoleon as well as a locket (médaillon) with some hair of Napoleon, collected by the Polish, princely Lubomirski family, who resided at Kornyakt Palace for quite some years and who, according to my guide, were the ones who decided to turn the palace into a museum. Therefore, most of the museum items were collected by them.
Other museum highlights include the Throne Hall as well as an Austrian, 18th century, Empire style pianoforte. The instrument once belonged to the Mozart family. From 1808 onwards, for over 20 years, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s son Franz Xaver (called Wolfgang), one of only two of the composer’s children who survived into adulthood, was a piano teacher in Lemberg / Lviv. Franz Xaver Mozart created the first school of music in the Galician city. Incidentally, the piano exposed is a transition period instrument, which documents the move from the harpsicchord (clavecin) to the pianoforte.
In short, there are plenty of artworks to admire at Kornyakt Palace at 6, Rynok Square.
Lviv Opera House. Photo: Oleksandr Samoylyk / Wikimedia Commons.
Lviv High Castle and its observation platform
No, there is no castle to visit on the 413-meter hill above the city of Lviv. The fortification originally built in wood in 1250 was demolished in 1869. Among the ruins left is the South Wall of Lviv High Castle. Nevertheless, a visit of the hilltop is recommended because of its observation platform which allows a 360-degree view over Lviv and its surroundings.
The Armenians in the Old Town
Each ethnic community in Lviv had their own street or area where they lived together in the Old Town. Virmenska Street was where the Armenian community used to be at home. They had fled their motherland after the Mongol-Tatar invasion in the 13th century and found refuge in Halychyna.
The Armenians are one of the oldest Christian nations. They brought not only their capital and their skills, e.g. as traders, jewelers and embroiderers, to Lviv, but also their religion.
The Armenian Cathedral of Lviv dates back to the 14th and 15th century. It combines a typical Armenian sanctuary with traditional Ukrainian Halychyna features with the Western European Romanesque-Gothic style.
The wealthy, mostly Roman Catholic merchants envied the Armenian competition with their trade connections. Assimilation was the only way for the Armenians to retain their wealth and social status within the city. Therefore, in 1630, the Armenian archbishop Mikolaj Torosowicz converted to Catholicism. Despite this act, the Armenian community shrunk from over 2,000 in the middle of the 17th century to only a few in the early 20th century, and the remaining Armenians Polonized their surnames. A new wave of Armenian immigrants arrived after the Soviet Union took over the city in 1939. Today’s Armenians largely arrived from other parts of the former Soviet Union after the collapse of the Communist bloc.
The Cathedral of John the Baptist was built for Princess Constance, the daughter of King Béla IV of Hungary.
St. George’s Cathedral Lviv
In its present state, the Greek-Catholic St. George’s Cathedral was built between 1744 and 1762. It is the work of the architect Bernard Meretyn, who was educated in the spirit of Western European architectural traditions, but who also introduced elements of Ukrainian religious art in his design. The baroque-rococo ensemble comprises cathedral, bell tower, metropolitan palace and capitulary buildings.
Situated on the high hill overlooking Lviv, St. George’s Cathedral has been constructed on the site of a 13th century church and cave monastery, commissioned by Prince Lev Danylovych for his uncle Vasylko, who had decided to withdraw from secular life and dedicate himself to God. Above the portal of the Cathedral, you can admire the sculptural group created by Jan Pinsel depicting Saint George Slaying the Dragon. Among the highlights of the interior are the icons of the altar, painted by the eminent 18th century artist Luka Dolynsky.
Among the most valuable items of St. George’s Cathedral is a 17th century icon, depicting the Virgin Mary of Terebovlya. It is said that, in 1663, the the eyes of the Virgin Mary icon shed tears for 40 days to alert the people about the impending Turkish siege. In 1704, the icon started crying again, when King Charles XII of Sweden seized Lviv.
Sts. Peter and Paul Garrison Church
Among the many churches in Lviv’s Old Town, Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church (1610-1630; the former Jesuit Church) is particularly loved by bridal pairs from all over Ukraine. Whenever I walked by, I spotted a wedding party.
Sts. Peter and Paul Garrison Church was built in the early Baroque style by the architects Sebastian Lamchius (until 1614) and Jacomo Briano from Modena. The church resembles Rome’s Gesu Church. The original, well-preserved murals date back to 1739-1743 period and are the work of Francis and Sebastian Eckstein from Moravia. The artworks depict scenes from the Bible and the lives of the saints.
Among the church’s many notable artworks is a wooden sculpture of St. Stanislaus Kostka (1550-1568), who is considered the patron of Lviv. He miraculously saved the city more the ones from various disasters, but died at the age of only seventeen.
The Habsburg opened up the city
From 1772 until the end of the First World War in 1918, Lviv was controlled by the Habsburg Empire. In 1777, under Austrian rule, the city walls were destroyed and the city opened up to the surrounding areas. Before that date, the separation between people living inside and outside the walls was strong to the point that for instance the Jews within and the ones outside even spoke different dialects.
Gems of Austrian architecture in Lemberg – Lviv and the Statute of Liberty
A gem of the Austrian architecture in Lemberg / Lviv is the building of the Museum of Ethnography and Arts and Crafts, situated at 15, Svobody Avenue. It was designed by the architect Julian Zachariewitcz for Halytska Savings Bank and built in 1891. The façade is decorated with rusticated stone, polychrome brick and forged metal. Its top features not only a dome, but also a sculptural group designed by Leonardo Marconi. A closer look at its central figure shows a resemblance to New York City’s Statue of Liberty. According to Lviv tourist information, this is not coincidental because, in 1884, the Lviv sculpture allegedly inspired the creation of the neoclassical copper statue designed by Frédéric Auguste Batholdi and built by Gustave Eiffel, offered by the people of France to the United States in 1886. The story sounds great but is not true because, already in 1870, Bartholdi had made a first, small-scale version of his statue (today exhibited at Musée des beaux-arts in Lyon) and, in 1878, had exhibited the head of the Statue of Liberty at the famous Exposition universelle de Paris. Nevertheless, a look at both the building of the Museum of Ethnography and Arts and Crafts as well as at the museum itself can be recommended.
Another highlight of Austrian architecture in Lviv can be found at the corner of Svobody Prospect and Koernika Street, known as Hausner House. Built between 1809 and 1822, this elegant Empire building was the 1850s home of the Austrian Archduke Karl Ludwig. The façade features several reliefs by the Lviv sculptor Gartman Witwer, who also created the four fountains based on the Greek mythology at Rynok Square depicting Neptune, Diana, Adonis and Amphitrite. The Hausner House mythological themes by Gartman Witwer include depictions of Amor and Psyche as well as Paris kidnapping Helena.
Potocki Place in Lviv. Photo: Andrey Okhrimets 2013 / Wikimedia Commons.
Potocki Palace
A must-see museum in Lviv is Potocki Palace. The elegant residence at Kopernika Street 15 was designed by the French architect Louis d’Overnu and executed under the supervision of Lviv architect Julian Cybulski from 1888 until 1890 for the Polish nobleman and former governor of Galicia and former minister-president of Cisleithania, Count Alfred Potocki (1817-1889). The building’s Neo-Renaissance style façade is as interesting as the interior, notably with furniture in Louis XVI style and paintings ranging from a Portrait of Empress Maria Theresa (ca. 1762) by Jean-Etienne Liotard to a Still Life with a Rabbit (1652) by Jan Van Kessel and a small-scale entitled Mach on the Balcony (year?) by Francisco Goya. The palace includes the Red Hall, the Blue Hall, the Mirror Hall, the Ordinate’s Office, a chapel with a 15th century Virgin Mary of Lviv icon and more.
The Petroleum lamp and the first electric tramway
The modern Petroleum lamp was invented by Ignacy Łukasiewicz in Lviv in 1853, where this Polish pharmacist, petroleum industry pioneer and philanthropist introduced the first modern street lamps the same year.
A themed-restaurant dedicated to this fact can be found in the city. Incidentally, the clever owners have created a whole series of themed restaurants, including one dedicated to the Austrian Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch, after whom the term Masochism was coined. Expect some (literally) striking experiences there.
In 1894, Lviv received the first electric tramway, long before Vienna, the capital of the Austrian Empire, and just three years after the world premiere with Gross Lichterfelde Tramway in Berlin.
George Hotel, Ukraine’s oldest functioning hotel
When I stayed for the first time in Lviv in May 2015, I had of course a look at George Hotel, built by the famous Viennese architects Fellner & Helmer, best-known for the many opera houses the constructed all around Europe; incidentally, Fellner & Helmer had also participated in the Lviv Opera House architectural competition, but did not win.
Present-day Hotel George is a run-down, three-star hotel, but its history still sets apart. Built in the Neo-Renaissance style, it offered hot and cold water, central heating, electric lifts and telephone lines in 1901. Among the many famous guests staying there, let’s just mention the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I, the Polish Marshal, Head of State, Prime Minister and dictator Józef Pilsudski, the composers Franz Liszt and Maurice Ravel, the Iranian Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar, the writers Honoré de Balzac and Count Aleksey Tolstoy as well as the Existentialist writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, to mention just a few.
Lviv Opera House
Under the Habsburg rule, the cultural life in Lviv flourished. The publishing business developed, the university was reorganized and two theatres of more than local importance opened: Skarbkivski Theatre and Grand City Theatre of Opera and Ballet (today’s Lviv Opera House).
Lviv Opera House, situated at 28 Svobody Square, has been designed by the Polish architect Zygmunt Gorgolewski, then the director of the Lemberg Higher-Art and Industrial School. It was built in a traditional, Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque style in the three years from from 1897 until 1900. The façade features allegorical sculptures, including eight muses and a ten-figure composition representing the Joys and Miseries of Life as well as allegories of Tragedy and Comedy above the portal. The façade is the work of the three Lviv sculptors Tadeusz Baroncz, Antoni Popiel and Piotr Viytovych.
The interior of Lviv Opera House is even more impressive. Gold was used all over. The mirror hall in the foyer was created under the supervision of Stanislaw Dembicki, the paintings are by Marceli Haraymowicz. The statues in the opera adorning the balconies have all individual features. The main curtain, representing an allegorical image of Mount Parnassus figures, home of the Muses in Greek mythology, was the work of Henryk Siemiradzki. The building is crowned by three, large-scale, allegoric bronze statues representing Glory, Poetry and Music.
The grand opening of Lviv Opera House – originally called Grand Theatre – took place on October 4, 1900. Among the famous guests present were the composer, pianist, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of independent Poland in 1919, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, the Polish writer, journalist and 1905-winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Henryk Sienkiewicz, as well as the lawyer, university professor and President of Lviv from 1897 until 1905, Gadzimir Malachowski.
Because of the current economic crisis, seats at Lviv Opera House are extremely cheap for Westerners. In May 2015, the best seat on the first balcony for a performance of Tosca cost me as little as about 9 Euro. The artistic level may not have been the highest (although the main singer in the role of the painter Mario Cavaradossi was good; the performance was in the original language: Italian), but the price-quality ratio was excellent. Incidentally, in better times, some of the world’s best artist’s have performed at Lviv Opera House, including tenor Enrico Caruso.
Present-day Lviv has a population of some 730,000 people. After Putin annexed the Crimea, some 2,000 Crimean Tatars moved to this Ukrainian, cultural center. Among the other, more recent immigrants, I noted a dynamic Turkish community.
In short, Lviv remains a multicultural city with an architectural ensemble that let’s you admire Europe as it once was. What you can read above is just a small selection of the city’s highlights.
Books about Lviv / Lvov / Lemberg / Leopolis from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de. Regarding Lviv Opera House, have a look at the book by Philipp Ther: In der Mitte der Gesellschaft: Operntheater in Zentraleuropa 1815-1914. Oldenbourg, 2006, 465 pages. The book features a comparison of the opera house traditions in Dresden, Lviv and Prague. Order the German book from Amazon.de. For more information about the city, check our article about the history of Lviv.
The Medieval Town Hall at Rynok Square by night in 2007. You should start your city tour with a visit of the 65-meter Rynok Square tower, which offers the best views of the Old Town. Photo by Wikipedia user Lestat (Jan Mehlich) / Wikimedia Commons.
View of the Galician city of Lviv. Photo by Andrii Podilnyk / Unsplash, public domain.
View of the Galician city of Lviv. Photo by Vadym Lebedych / Unsplash, public domain.
Article added on June 16, 2015 at 23:09 CET. New photographs added on March 7, 2019.
