Welcome to Ukraine - Accomodation - Lviv

Lviv was founded by King Danilo of the Ruthenian principality of Halych-Volynia and named in honor of his son, Lev. The city's history dates back to the 13th century. In the past, it was spared several invasions and wars that destroyed many Ukrainian cities. In the 16th century, however, it was twice struck by large fire that ruined most of the town's gothic style buildings. Lviv managed to retain a rich variety of Renaissance, Baroque, Art Nouveau and Art Deco structures. There is a great deal of stone carvings and sculptures to be seen on the buildings, the remains of ancient castles and old churches and many houses hide inside courtyards and grottos. Often the large, thick doors with carvings and woodwork from hundreds of years ago are enough to catch one's attention. While in the city center there is only a handful of distractive Soviet monuments and sculptures, once you head to the outskirts, the architecture changes radically and the Soviet era style dominates the landscape.
However, during the last decades the economic and enviromental issues have taken their toll on the many historical buidlings in the city. The system change that followed the independence of Ukraine created a legal and cultural vacuum which some of the building owners were not late to use at the expense of preservation of historical heritage. Some of the historical buildings were renovated with no respect to the standards of restoration and hence lost their authentic appearance. Some of the monuments were illegally dismantled and sold as scrap metal. City authorities ran into financial difficulties and had to cut funding for upkeeping of historical buildings. This, however, has already started to become a thing of the past as more and more attention is paid to saving the national historical heritage.

The Lviv High Castle or Lviv Castle Hill
The High Castle is located near the center of Lviv. It is the highest point of Lviv at 413 meters above the sea level and it used to be surrounded by a fortification. The Castle Hill took its name from the High Castle (as opposite to the other, Low Castle), which used to stand atop the hill from 13th till late 19th century. The castle was the the main defensive fort of the city during its existence.

The first fortifying structures on the Castle Hill appeared in the time of Halych-Volynia and were built by Leo I. of Halych. They were traditionally constructed of wood and soil. In 1259 at the order of Burunday Khan, they were destroyed, but were later rebuilt. In 1340, when Lviv was first occupied by Casimir III. of Poland, the wooden castle was burnt down. In 1353 it was destroyed again. A new castle appeared on the hill at the end of the 14th century and it became the residence of local aristocracy. During the Khmelnytsky Uprising it was taken by Cossack forces led by Maksym Kryvonos in 1648. Some fifty years later, the castle was heavily damaged during the Swedish occuppation. In 1777, Austrians initiated dissassembling of the fortifications. In the 19th century the ruins were taken apart and a new fortress was built. The fortifications were strengthened, trees were planted on the hills' slope and a park was established. In 1957 a 141 meter tall TV tower was placed on the hill. Currently, there is an observation platform too.

Lychakivskyi Cemetery
The cemetery was established in 1787 and was since used to bury citizens of the local middle and upper classes. Initially the cemetery was located on several hills in the borough of Lyczakow, following the imperial Austro-Hungarian edict that all cemeteries be moved outside the of the city limits. The original project was prepared by Karol Bauer, the head of the Lwyw University botanical garden.

In mid 1850s the cemetery was expanded by Tytus Tchyrzewski who created the present network of alleys and roundabouts. It then became the main city cemetery and soon most other cemeteries were closed. The two largest that remained were the Yanivskiy Cemetery (in Polish Janowski, with graves of mostly working class people) and the adjacent New Jewish Cemetery. Lychakivskiy Cemetery was used by all Christians - in addition to Roman Catholics, it also included Eastern Rite Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox.

In 1925 the ashes of one of the unknown defenders of Lwyw were transferred to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw. Since 1999 there is also a monument to the Sich Riflemen located just outside the mausoleum of Polish defenders of the city in 1918.

After World War II the city was annexed by the Soviet Union to the Ukrainian SSR and majority of the surviving pre-war inhabitants were expelled to former German areas annexed to Poland. This started a period of devastation of historical monuments located at the cemetery. Up to 1971 many of the sculptures were destroyed; the cemetery of Lwyw Eagles was completely destroyed and turned into a truck depot. However, in 1975, the cemetery was declared a historical monument and the degradation ended. Since late 1980s the cemetery has seen constant rebuilding and refurbishment and continues to be one of the principal tourist attractions of Lviv.

In late 2006 the city administration announced the future transfer of the tombs of Stepan Bandera, Yevhen Konovalets, Andriy Melnyk and others to a new area of the cemetery specifically dedicated to the Ukrainian national liberation struggle.