L’viv: Ukraine’s least Soviet city
With its amazingly well preserved Gothic, Renaissance, neo-classical, rococo, and baroque architecture, gently bending streets and hidden ancient niches, Lviv is a unique Ukrainian city and gateway to the Carpathian Mountains. Home to many of the country’s brightest and best museums, art galleries theatres, and churches, it’s the centre of Ukrainian art and culture – often nick-named the “Florence of the East” – and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Steeped in old world charm it buzzes with European soul and pubs, clubs, restaurants and coffee houses abound.
The city has had an enthralling and violent history. Founded in honour of his son Lev by King Danylo of Galicia in the early 13th Century, the city was subsequently ruled by Poland, Sweden, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The Hitler–Stalin Pact of 1939 granted control of Lviv to the Soviet Union. This occupation spurred numerous resistance movements in the 1940s and 50s – including the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, freedom was finally won.
Lviv continues to be a shining example of independence and Ukraine owes much of its contemporary identity to the stream of patriotism which radiates from this radical western city. In fact it’s Ukraine’s least Soviet City.
Lviv is Ukraine’s Bible Belt with magnificent and inspiring churches and cathedrals on almost every corner. It has more than 80 churches so it’s pretty easy to binge on ornate interiors and golden iconostases. For a real treat, take a sunrise stroll through the centre on a Sunday, when church music begins to waft through the deserted streets and courtyards.
Here’s 6 of the best:
Armenian Cathedral
The tranquil cathedral courtyard is a maze of arched passageways and squat buildings festooned with intricate Caucasian detail. Stepping into the courtyard feels like stepping back into another era.
Bernardine Church and Monastery
Lviv’s most stunning baroque interior belongs to the 17th-century Bernardine Church and Monasterynow the Greek Catholic Church of St Andrew. The highlight is the long ceiling covered in recently restored frescoes. Sunday masses spill out into the street, filling the surrounding square with song. Walking from here back to pr Svobody, you’ll pass pl Halytska and the statue of Prince Danylo Halytsky, Lviv’s founder.
Boyim Chapel
A highlight of Ploshchka rynok is the Boyim Chapel, just off the square’s southwestern corner. The burial chapel (1617) of a Hungarian merchant family, its blackened façade is covered in magnificent carvings, including portraits of family patriarchs above the door. Atop the cupola is an unusual sculpture of Christ sitting with his head in one hand.
Dormition Church
The Ukrainian Orthodox Dormition Church is easily distinguished by the 65m, triple-tiered Kornyakt bell tower rising beside it. The tower was named after its Greek benefactor, a merchant who was also the original owner of Kornyakt House on pl Rynok. It’s well worth going inside to see the beautiful interior of the church, accessible through the gate to the right of the tower. Attached to the church is the tiny Three Saints Chapel.
Roman Catholic Cathedral
Opposite the Boyim Chapel, on pl Katedralna stands the working Roman Catholic Cathedral (1370-1480). Here you can see a cannonball hanging by a chain off the cathedral’s corner, which miraculously failed to penetrate its walls during a historic battle. If you walk around the cathedral, you’ll see a relief of Pope John Paul II on the other side, erected to commemorate his visit to Lviv in 2001. The church’s exterior is Gothic while the heavily gilded interior, one of the city’s most ornate, has a more baroque feel.
Transfiguration Church
The tall copper-domed church just west of the Armenian Cathedral is the late-17th-century Transfiguration Church, the first church in the city to revert to Greek Catholicism after Ukrainian independence in 1991.
Here are some other sites worth visiting in Lviv:
The Apteka Museum:
An old world still-functioning pharmacy
The Apteka Museum is located inside a still-functioning pharmacy dating from 1735 – it still boasts the original wooden counter, pestle and mortar and terrifying potion-filled vials of yesteryear.Entrance into the eerie pidval (basement) is by request only. You can buy a bottle of iron-rich medicinal wine, if you can bear the temporary tooth discolouration. Be sure to ask for ‘vino’.
Lychakivsky Cemetery:
The Père Lachaise of Eastern Europe
A short journey from the city centre, Lychakivsky Cemetery isthe Père Lachaise of Eastern Europe. With the same sort of overgrown grounds and Gothic aura as the famous Parisian necropolis, it was officially designated a museum in 1991. Winding through over 110 acres of wooded hills, the cemetery is the final resting place of over 400,000 people and reflects the tides of the region’s history. The revered nationalist poet, Ivan Franko, is buried here alongside dozens of other famous Ukrainians and Polish leaders. Thousands of soldiers from the region’s many wars are also buried in this sprawling estate.
Established in 1786 after Austrian authorities prohibited burial at church cemeteries inside the city, the cemetery contains over 3,600 elaborate tombstones, pillars, and temples designed by prominent artists and architects. In a clearing, 2marble monuments with epitaphs in Ukrainian and Polish mark the chaotic days near the end of WWIwhen both armies struggled to claim the city of Lviv as their own. Tombstones with the Soviet hammer-and-sickle emblem are erected next to graves with Christian crosses, an indication that Ukraine has always been a land of many masters. Definitley you’llcome away with a sense of history, and feel moved by the flowers and photos that are still placed on markers to remember the dead of centuries gone by.
Lvivske Museum of Beer & Brewing:
The oldest still-functioning brewery in Europe turned 300 years old in 2015, and a tasting tour through the mainly underground facilities is well worth the price of admission. This unusual museum is housed inside real brewery cellars and is stuffed with hundreds of beery artefacts. The brewery founder: Robert Doms. Doms apparently liked to do a “quality control” check on newly-brewed beer in bed every morning. The drink was brought to him by his young servant Zosia in 10 litre ‘halbas’. They fell in love, got married, he sold share of the brewery and they moved to Switzerland where they lived happily ever after. Event today the legendary halbas – named “Zoska” – is considered a talisman of the museum.
ROBERT DOMS BEER HOUSE: This fantastic utterly unique beer hall is located 3 stories underground in a centuries-old beer storage vault, once used by the neighbouring Lvivske brewery. It’s named after the brewery founder and is flanked by massive wooden tables and boasting enough elbow room for a 1,000 people. Everything in Robert Doms is huge including the bowls of soup, the colossal mugs of local the local brew.
The High Castle
Best views of the city
Visiting the High Castle (Vysoky Zamok) on Castle Hill (Zamkova Hora) is a quintessential Lviv experience. The 14th-century ruined stone fort at the summit was Lviv’s birthplace and offers the best vantage point of the city.
Destination: Ukraine
