The ins and outs of Lviv – Ukraine’s historical pearl
Many stories and legends have been told about the origins of Lviv, the architecturally rich and largest city of western Ukraine. Most of them are connected with lions because the word Lviv is derived from lev in Ukrainian.
One of the more popular ones describes a savage lion, which had been stealing and eating people from the villages around a mountain. No one could catch or tame him. A courageous warrior from Kyiv had managed to wrestle it down with a special sword melted with the blood of virgins. Since then, the city, which evolved around the den of the lion on the mountain, was called Lviv.
Summertime in Lviv, which has a metropolitan area population of one million people, is a good time to sit at an outdoors cafe and read about the city’s many legends in Yuriy Vynnychyk’s excellent Lehendy Lvova [The Legends of Lviv] or just watch a festival of people walk by.
With its growing reputation as Ukraine’s tourism capital and an important eastern European destination, Lviv offers plenty to see and do, whether one is travelling alone or in a group. Many of the city’s must-see sites are located in the center, which is not far from Lviv’s mountain.
Ploshcha Rynok, the city’s central square, has been the heart of the city for centuries. Planned in the second half of the 14th century, each of its 44 tenement houses has its own rich history; the complex represents architectural styles ranging from the Renaissance to Modernism. The Italian Courtyard, located in the Kornjakt Palace, adds to the city’s romantic ambiance with its Renaissance-style three-tiered colonnade.
The famed and mysterious Armenian quarter is home to the oldest church in downtown Lviv. Its entrance boasts a unique collection of headstones.
Lviv’s Boim Chapel (Iryna Prymachyk)
The Boim Chapel, darkened with centuries of soot, was built in 1609 and 1615 by wealthy merchants, Jerzy Boim and his wife Jadwiga Nizniowska. Their portraits still grace the outside of the chapel, which was constructed on a site that was once the city’s main cemetery.
On Prospect Svobody 2, the National Museum hosts one of the finest collections of icons in Europe; the museum was established in 1905 by Andriy Sheptytsky, a notorious Greek-Catholic Metropolitan. He played a difficult balancing act during World War II. He supported Ukrainian nationalists and saved many Jewish lives while publicly opposing the invading Communists and Nazis.
Lviv’s Opera House, located across the street from the museum, opened on Oct. 4, 1900. Its opulence is considered one of the most beautiful in Europe.
Along with the sites that have lured and enthralled visitors for many decades, Lviv in recent years has seen a growth in quality restaurants that offer mouth-watering menus ranging from Italian to Japanese, while coffee houses boast a just-when-you-need-it jolt of the dark brew served in atmospheres representing 16th century Lviv, modern chic and historic eras in between.
Lviv’s Italian Courtyard, known in Ukrainian as Italiysky Dvoryk. (Iryna Prymachyk)
The city has also added numerous hotels and centrally-located hostels that fit almost any pocketbook, from the upscale Citadel Inn, which was once a fort to defend the eastern entrance into Lviv, to the Central Square Hostel, which is appropriately located on the Ploshcha Rynok.
For those planning a trip to Lviv, be it in the near future or in months ahead, useful information about the city’s main attractions and festivals can be found on several websites, both of which are sponsored by the city council. Its official site is www.city-adm.lviv.ua.
The Ukrainian-language www.touristinfo.lviv.ua provides a full list of places to visit, as well as a proposed walking tour of the city. It also highlights tourist attractions in Lviv Oblast, which includes a tour of its famed castles and the Opillia region, rich with caves, wooden churches and palaces once belonging to European royalty. A calendar of events provides a full listing of happenings on any given day.
The site www.ct.lviv.ua focuses on culture and tourism in five languages – English, Polish, German, Ukrainian, and Russian. The events calendar lists festivals all the way through 2011 and provides a wealth of information about galleries, museums, theatres and includes photographs of those establishments, making them easier to find.
The site’s tourism section gives a full listing of tour agencies and their principle excursions, as well as a generous list of places to eat, drink and spend the night, and various price ranges. An interesting feature is the site’s banner which shows how the panorama of Adam Mickiewicz Square changed between 1900 and 2008.
The site’s section about Ukraine’s “first” events that happened in Lviv gives the visitor a chance to learn some surprising history about the city, as well as a push to see places off the beaten track.
With the click of a mouse, visitors will find that in 1574, Ivan Fedorov published what is modern-day Ukraine’s first book “Apostol” in Lviv; in the second half of the 16th century, Jan Scholz-Wolfowich, a wealthy Lviv citizen, spent 1,600 gold pieces to lay out plans for the Jesuit Park, which today is known as Ivan Franko Park and is located across the street from Ukraine’s first university, founded in 1661; Italian Roberto Bandinelli opened the country’s first European-style post office in 1629; the Kleparov district became home to the first industrial brewery in 1715; the nation’s first newspaper, Kurier Lwowski, was published in 1749 and in 1776 was followed by the weekly, Gazette de Leopol, the first paper to come out on a regular basis; the first permanent municipal theatre was founded in 1776 and was located on Teatralna Street, near today’s Secondary School No. 62. That is just a stone’s throw away from Lviv’s famed Vernisazh, an open air market that offers handmade purses from the Carpathians, traditional embroidered shirts and many souvenirs.
For those who come unprepared, Lviv finally opened its first tourist information center last year, located inside the town hall on 1 Ploshcha Rynok, with the help of TACIS, a European Union program. In this brightly lit office, visitors can obtain free city maps, as well as brochures in English, Ukrainian, Polish and Russian, which highlight Lviv’s main sites; a pocket-sized four-language map that boasts must-see places, transportation routes and emergency numbers, which has become hugely popular.
They can also pick up a copy of OT-OT, a monthly listing of cultural events, current exhibitions and festivals that will take place throughout the year. The brochure lists the addresses, opening hours and entrance fees to Lviv’s many museums.
The center’s friendly and multi-lingual staff will also help visitors book stays and suggest places to eat. The center is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Saturday from 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; and Sunday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The center’s phone number is (032) 254-6079. Lviv eventually hopes to open up similar tourism centers at the train station and airport.
After a visit to the tourism center, visitors can go up to the fourth floor, and between 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily, pay five hryvnia to take 320 steps to reach the top of the town hall. From there, they will get a fantastic view of the city, as well as the lion’s mountain.
Natalia A. FEDUSCHAK
August, 19 2010 KyivPost
