Sights

The Zolochiv Castle has been a royal residence, a prison, and an educational facility.

Jakub Sobieski - the father of the Polish king Jan III - built the stone castle to replace a wooden fort in 1634. It was built as palazzo in fortezzo, that is, it was suitable for living and as a defense structure. Due to its unique design, the castle remained impregnable for a long time.

This luxurious, heavily fortified Renaissance palace is one of the best preserved, famous, and most attractive castles in western Ukraine.

Its history began in the 17th century, when the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's Crown Hetman Stanislaw Koniecpolski bought an old fortification in the small town Pidhirtsi and decided to rebuild it in Renaissance style. At the hetman's request, the French architect Guillaume de Beauplan designed its unique defensive facilities, and Italian Andrea del Aqua created the luxurious two-story palace with three floor pavilions.

This is the oldest building in western Ukraine, and one of the best-known castles that had been reconstructed from ruin. For over six centuries, the castle has been soaring on a 50-meter (164 feet) high hill, protecting memories of crucial historical events that it had witnessed and participated in. Today, a museum occupies the castle, exhibiting unique works of art.

Park High Castle on Castle Hill is not far from the center of the city. The main feature lures many tourists - the viewing platform at the top of an artificial mound, which you can see almost the entire city of Lviv. The castle itself, in whose honor and named the mountain and the park was not preserved - to our times «survived» only a few ruins. On Castle Hill is also home Lviv television tower.

16^th-17^th cent. A distinguished monument of Renaissance architecture. This church was the focal point of the Orthodox community in Lviv. In the mid-16^th cent. The Dormition Brotherhood, which had its own school and imprimery, was founded here. The leading figures in the Brotherhood were the brothers Yuriy and Ivan Rohatynets. Many cultural and educational activists worked in the Brotherhood school, among them Stefan and Lavrentiy Zyzaniy, Kyrylo Stavrovetsky (Trankvilion), Pamva Berynda, Iov Boretsky, and others.

1744-70. A classic example of Ukrainian Baroque architecture and the main church of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. Construction was begun in 1774; after the death of the original architect B. Meretyn, construction work was supervised by S. Fessinger (until 1764). Decorative work was completed in 1772. The cathedral contains sculptures by Pinzel, S. Fessinger, and M. Filevych and paintings by the artists L. Dolynsky and Yu. Radyvylivsky.

Real decoration of streets Copernicus is Potocki Palace. Through the front gate of the openwork lattice majestic and imposing towers of it surrounding buildings. These lands from time immemorial called Horunschinoy because back in the XVII century belonged Khorunzhaya corona Stefan Potocki.

This architectural ensemble occupies a special place in the civil architecture of Lviv. In the center of the square (142 x 129 m) is the city hall. References to the square first appeared in the municipal acts of 1381, when the original wood structure was destroyed by fire. A new city hall was constructed in the 15^th cent. In 1826 this structure collapsed; the present structure was built in 1827-35 by the architects A. Vondrashko, Y. Markl, F. Treter, and Yu. Hlohovsky. Its present appearance is the result of reconstruction undertaken following a fire in 1848. Many historical events have taken place on the Market Square.

Over the past few centuries in Europe criterion for determining the cultural level of the city was the presence of a university or Opera. Lviv, University of XVII century, XIX - became more and opera town. However, citizens have started to get acquainted with a new kind of art (opera as a genre emerged at the turn of the century XVI-XVII in Florence) long before the City Theatre (so called Lviv National Academic Opera and Ballet of Krushelnytska until 1939).

Established in 1786. The area of the cemetery is 40 ha, divided into 86 tracts containing approximately 3,500 monuments and sculptures executed by eminent sculptors and architects. Of particular note are the works of memorial sculpture by such artists as H. Witwer, A. and J. Schimser, H. Baronch, K. Hodebsky, Yu. Markovsky, H. Kuznevych and others.