Architecture, Lviv

Svobody Avenue is the city main street combining functions of the business and cultural center. It is Lviv’s second most important historical spot after Rynok Square. The avenue owes its status as one of the most beautiful and elegant streets in the city to its splendid architecture, which harmonically combines traits of various historical styles. Elegant ancient houses, framing it from both sides, are Svobody Avenue’s main adornment and create its unique atmosphere. Once, the western line of Lviv fortifications, called Lower Walls, was located there. In the late 18th century, when the city was under the governance of Austria-Hungary, dilapidated fortifications were pulled down and the even side of the modern avenue was formed. The odd side was constructed on the marshy bank of the Plotva River, which was hidden under the ground, later. Svobody Avenue’s most attractive building, its symbol and highlight, is the magnificent Opera House. Other notable structures include the elegant National Museum, the former Galych Credit Fund (currently the Museum of Ethnography and Arts Crafts), the Viennese Coffee House and the Grand Hotel. One of the Svobody Avenue’s most recognizable sights is the unusual monument to Taras Shevchenko with 12-meter-high bronze stele ‘Wave of National Renaissance,’ installed in its center. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/western-ukraine/lviv/1362

The Lviv National Museum, situated in the very beautiful building on Svobody Avenue, is one of the largest museums in Ukraine that features a considerable collection of Ukrainian visual arts. It was founded by the Greek Catholic metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, whose name it has now. Initially, it was a Church Museum and was aimed to develop Ukrainian national culture. The core of the National Museum’s current exposition is its founder’s personal collection, numbering about 10 thousand valuable works of art. A quarter of a century later, the funds of the Lviv Museum had more than 80 thousand exhibits and now, there are almost 120 thousand works of visual arts. It houses country’s largest collections of Ukrainian icons, dated to the 14th – 18th centuries, and of medieval sacred and folk arts: sculptures, manuscripts, engravings, old printed books, pottery, bone and metal works. National Museum’s pride is pictorial canvases by eminent Ukrainian artists: Ivan Trush, Oleksa Novakivsky, Kornil Ustiyanovich, Elena Kulchytska and others. The highlight of the museum's collection is a number of original works by Taras Shevchenko. Paintings by contemporary Lviv artists are exhibited here as well. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/western-ukraine/lviv/1361

An elegant building of the former Carmelite Church is situated outside the Old Town, in which Lviv’s main architectural gems are located, but is not inferior to them in its beauty and historical value. The imposing cathedral, standing at the foot of the High Castle, draws attention with its refined towers, crowned with pointed spires, and elegant decoration, as well as with breathtaking views of the Lviv historical center that open from the observation area in front of the catholic church. The monumental stone stairs lead there. Carmelite monks came to Lviv in the 16th century and chose the marshy area in the Krakiv suburb of the medieval city. A hundred years later, they managed to get a plot of land from the city council, which was closer to the city walls and where they planned to build a monastery and to lay out a garden. It is considered that the construction of the Carmelite cloister started in 1634. First, the Catholic Church was raised, and later, monastic cells and courtyard were added to it. The monastery, built outside Lviv’s eastern fortification line and surrounded with powerful defensive walls, was supposed to become a fortress, providing additional protection to the city. However, ironically it turned out the other way around. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/western-ukraine/lviv/1357

The building of the former noble casino and now the House of Scientists is one of the Lviv most amazing and perfect architectural structures and is recognized as a valuable neo-baroque monument. The construction was ordered by the studs’ owners club and was carried out by the famous Austrian company Fellner and Helmer, in 1898. They are known for designing such famous buildings like Vienna Observatory and Odessa Opera. Constructing the Lviv casino, the Austrian architects were inspired by the best samples of European palatial architecture and this influence is clearly seen in the luxurious decoration of building’s facades, which are richly adorned with sculptures and stucco work. The entrance is ‘guarded’ by two magnificent atlantes, who hold the first-floor balcony on their mighty shoulders. However, it is its fantastic interiors that make the amazing house in Lviv downtown look like royal palaces of the Old World. The ground floor is occupied by the huge lobby, whose main adornment is a unique oak staircase with carved railings. It is said that it was a wedding gift to a member of the club. The intricately meandering stairs lead to the first floor, where eight luxurious rooms are located: White Room with marble fireplace and black concert grand piano, Red Room, covered with silk and featuring crystal chandeliers, cosy Beige Room and charming Mirror Room with antique furniture, the famous library with delightful gallery and balcony, adorned with stucco work. The green strolling garden and the meeting room are situated there too. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/western-ukraine/lviv/1363

The museum of the sacral baroque sculpture is reckoned among the Lviv’s most interesting and impressive museums. It keeps the unique heritage of Johann Georg Pinsel – one of the most talented and mysterious sculptors of the 18th century. He is nicknamed Ukrainian Michelangelo for extraordinary mastery. The museum is situated in the building of the age-old Catholic Church, which formerly belonged to the Franciscan monks. It is a valuable monument of Lviv’s architecture. The cathedral is notable for the fact that its interior has preserved the skillfully made frescos of the 18th century, illustrating plots from the Old and New Testament. The Lviv Museum of sacral baroque sculpture keeps the largest collection of Johann Pinsel’s works. His creative work is recognized as an outstanding phenomenon in Ukrainian and world cultures’ history. The original Ukrainian master with European education created inimitable religious sculptures, which had no analogues in the Old World of the second half of the 18th century. It was Pinsel who founded the new artistic center, which later was named the Lviv School of Sacral Sculpture. In the 1750s, he actively created original figures for the St. Jura Cathedral, one of the most beautiful Lviv temples, St. Martin Church and many other West Ukrainian churches. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/western-ukraine/lviv/2331

Wherever you go in Lviv, you are inevitably astonished by its inimitable and varied architecture. However, the Potocki Palace, hiding behind the open-worked forged fence on one of the streets that radiate from the main city artery, Svobody Avenue, stands out against the background of majestic ancient buildings, huddling in the downtown. It's an elegant building, whose luxurious forms are reminiscent of French Renaissance castles, is rightly considered to be one of the most interesting and beautiful monuments of architecture in Lviv. In the middle of the 19th century, a park with a small hunting homestead, owned by the noble Polish family Potocki, was located on the modern palace’s place. A legend states that Potocki family owned these lands since the 17th century. In 1860, Count Alfred II Potocki ordered to pull down the mansion and to build a big gala palace on its place. The palace was intended for solemn receptions and high-rank meetings. As long as the count was in fond of exquisite French architecture, he chose the project of the prominent architect from France and hired Polish architect Julian Tsibulsky to adapt and implement it. The customer wasn’t destined to see the palace; he had died before the construction was finished and his son continued to supervise the building process, afterwards. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/western-ukraine/lviv/1290

The Greek-Catholic Dormition Church can’t brag with majestic architectural shapes and luxurious decoration. Being simple and at the first sight unremarkable, it is reckoned among the Rivne key sights, though. https://discover-ukraine.info/places/western-ukraine/rivne/1056

The Dominican Church, now the Greek Catholic Church of the Holy Eucharist, is a magnificent monument of the late Baroque; it is adorned with original sculptures. http://lviv.travel/en/index/what_to_do/architecturelviv/historicalplaces/~1480/the-dominican-church

The Lviv Opera House (28 Svobody Square) is an architectural gem of Lviv, built in the Neo-Renaissance style in 1901, and one of the most beautiful theatres in Europe. http://lviv.travel/en/index/what_to_do/architecturelviv/historicalplaces/~1497/the-opera-house