Attractions of Lviv region

The oldest pharmacy in Lviv has been operating on Rynok Square for almost 300 years. The pharmacy in the townhouse "Under the Black Eagle" was opened in 1735 by a military pharmacist Franz Wilhelm Natorp, as evidenced by a wrought-iron sign with the emblem of medicine above the entrance. On both sides of the neat portal there are relief portraits of the god of healing Aesculapius and his daughter - the goddess of health Hygiene. The old interior of the trade hall, paintings by Viennese masters on the ceiling, antique scales and cash registers have been preserved.

In 1966, the Museum of the History of Pharmacy opened here, with an exposition of more than 3,000 exhibits. In the exhibition halls you can see a variety of pharmaceutical devices, reconstruction of the pharmacist's home, an underground alchemical laboratory. The courtyard recreates the view of the house of a rich burgher of the XVI-XVII centuries.

Pharmacy "Under the Black Eagle" continues to serve people today, becoming a state pharmacy № 15. In addition to drugs, you can buy the world-famous "Iron Wine" (aqueous solution of iron sugar used in iron deficiency anemia) and the popular Lviv tincture "Vigor", which is considered a means of increasing potency. Memorable souvenirs are also sold here.

Art Center "Dzyga" in Lviv is the residence of the creative association "Dzyga" - an organization of artists, public figures and entrepreneurs. It has been operating since 1993. The gallery presents contemporary art. Every night the club hosts jazz or blues concerts. At the gallery there is a cafe "Under the Hourglass" - a meeting place of Lviv bohemians with a democratic and creative atmosphere.

Archaeological Museum of the Institute of Ukrainian Studies named Ivan Krypyakevych of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine has been working in Lviv since 2001. Located in the historic building of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, that previously led the Ukrainian archaeological research in Galicia. The museum presents artifacts from the Paleolithic to the late Middle Ages, found in Western Ukraine. Along with the original artifacts of stone, bone, horn, clay, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, life-size reconstructions of Paleolithic housing methods (more than 50,000 years ago) during the existence of the Trypillia culture (IV-III millennium BC), in the early Slavic period (V-VII centuries AD), the ancient methods of leather processing, drilling of stone axes, making pottery, smelting iron, etc. were reproduced. In total, more than 2,000 exhibits were presented.

The building of the Lviv House of Scientists was built by Fellner and Helmer in 1897-98 according to the project of Viennese architects F. Fellner and G. Helmer. This creative tandem also worked on the George Hotel in Lviv, the Odessa Opera House, and the Chernivtsi City Theater. The construction project was commissioned by the equestrian club. The imposing appearance of the facades of the house is in the neo-baroque style. From 1918 to 1939 the People's (aristocratic, count, noble) casino (meeting) was located here. Since 1948, the Lviv House of Scientists has been located here. Well-preserved interior elements - grand staircase, stucco, alabaster fireplaces, original transparent ceiling, elegant balcony - all this makes the former casino one of the most beautiful and architectural buildings in Lviv. It was here that a scene from the film "D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers" was filmed, where D'Artagnan climbed the stairs to the cardinal to play chess with him.

The Lviv Palace of Arts Exhibition Complex is the largest exhibition and cultural-artistic center of Western Ukraine. The Art Nouveau building was designed by architect Vasyl Kamenshchyk and built in 1996. The facades are decorated with classic arcade loggias and a sculpture of the patron saint of artists, St. Luke. With a total area of ​​8.7 thousand square meters, the area of ​​12 exhibition halls is 3.6 thousand square meters. The palace has a conference hall for 200 people with a stage and an art living room. It hosts such regular events as the International Publishers' Forum, Lviv Autumn Salon "High Castle", All-Ukrainian children's drawing competition "Spring Moods", the annual art exhibition dedicated to Shevchenko's days "Love Your Ukraine ...". On the basis of donated works and documents, the room-museum of Taras Shevchenko is constantly functioning here. The Palace of Arts also houses the St. Nicholas Helpers Factory and hosts the National Chocolate Festival.

The State Natural History Museum of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Lviv is considered one of the oldest natural history museums in Europe. Founded in 1870 by the naturalist-collector, count of Ukrainian origin Volodymyr Didushytskyy in a reconstructed building in the early neoclassicism style of the early 19th century. In 1880 Didushitsky donated the museum to the Lviv community, and since 1940 it has been under the jurisdiction of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Since 2013, the State Natural History Museum has been creating a new main exhibition "Symphony of Life", the paleontological part of which was opened in 2019 under the name "Ice Age". Among the most interesting exhibits: skeletons of a mammoth and woolly rhinoceros from the ozocerite deposit in Starun, bones of other fossil animals, a Cro-Magnon figure of the late Stone Age, reconstruction of a primitive man's dwelling. The exhibition is complemented by interactive multimedia kiosks.

A kind of museum exhibit is the oldest operating mechanical elevator in Ukraine, equipped back in 1870 by Count Didushitsky, who was partially paralyzed in old age and moved in a wheelchair. For the smallest visitors, there is an interactive children's area.

National Museum in Lviv named after Andrey Sheptytsky presents an outstanding collection of works of Ukrainian national culture and art. More than 175,000 exhibits reflect the evolution of Ukrainian art culture over nine centuries. Of particular value is the collection of sacred art of the XII-XVIII centuries.

The institution was founded in 1905 by the Greek Catholic Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky as the "Church Museum", in 1913 it was solemnly donated to the Ukrainian people. The work on the organization of the museum was headed by Professor Hilarion Sventsitsky, Ivan Franko, Mykhailo Hrushevsky and others took an active part in its development.

In the spacious exhibition halls of the main museum building there is a permanent exhibition of "Ukrainian art of the XII - early XX centuries", presenting the pearls of the national and world art treasury. Among the works of Ukrainian medieval sacred art there are ancient icons: "Yuri Zmieborets" (XIV century), "Archangel Michael with deeds" (XIV century), "St. Paraskeva Friday" (XIV century), "Virgin Hodegetria" (XV century) and others. The book collections include the Buchach Gospel (13th century), the Pandects of Antiochus (1307), the editions of the first printers Schweipolt Fiol, Francis Skaryna, Ivan Fedorov, and others. Graphics, sculpture, folk art are also presented.

The departments of the Sheptytsky National Museum are the exposition "Ukrainian Art of the Twentieth Century", art and memorial museums of Ivan Trush, Oleksa Novakivsky, Olena Kulchytska, Leopold Levitsky, arranged in the former homes and creative workshops of these outstanding Ukrainian artists.

The building of the City Arsenal of Lviv is one of the preserved parts of the city fortifications of the 16th century. The first small armory existed in this place at the beginning of the 15th century, but after a fire in 1571 it was demolished and a new two-storey building for the manufacture and storage of weapons was built in 1574–1575. The architects were probably well-known Lviv builders Pavlo Shchaslyvy and Sebastian Mochygemba. On the east side, the Arsenal was adjacent to the High Defensive Wall between the Tokarivska and Shevska towers. There was a bastion in front of the building. Workshops for casting guns and bells and repairing weapons were opened at the arsenal. There was an ammunition depot nearby. Under Austrian rule in the 18th century, the building was used as an unofficial prison. In particular, it housed the Haidamaks, participants in the Koliivshchyna uprising, as the memorial plaque reminds us.

In 1981, the Arsenal Museum was opened in the premises of the City Arsenal, which represents one of the best weapons collections in the country from 30 countries. The exposition includes ancient Russian and Cossack maces, graceful Arabian sabers, daggers of the peoples of the Caucasus and the Arab East, heavy European two-handed swords, armor of Polish "winged hussars", rifles and pistols with different types of locks, guns with coats of arms and much more. Many monuments are decorated with precious metals, gems, ivory, pearls, coral, mother of pearl. And this is only a small part of the weapons collection of the Lviv Historical Museum, which has about 4.5 thousand units. The museum has an antique salon. Visually impaired visitors are offered audio description.

The Les Kurbas Memorial Museum in Sambor was opened in 1993 in the building where the future actor and director was born in 1887. Kurbas was the founder of the National Western Ukrainian Theater School and the creator of the famous theater-academy "Berezil". The museum's collection includes 5,594 items: a bust of L. Kurbas by the sculptor M. Posikira, a bas-relief board by the sculptor E. Mysko, paintings by M. Yaremkiv, S. Muryash, L. Frintsko and others. Selections of theatrical photographs, embroidered napkins, etc. are presented.

One of the most interesting examples of Lviv Renaissance architecture in the ensemble of Rynok Square is the Lorentsovych house, better known as the "Black House" (Chorna Kamianytsia). Built in 1577 by architect Peter Krasovsky. Pharmacist Jan Lorentsovych opened one of the first pharmacies in Lviv here. During the XVI-XIX centuries, the house changed owners many times, as well as completed and rebuilt. Initially, the building was not black, but under the influence of precipitation, the sandstone masonry was greatly darkened, and now it is specially painted black.

Back in 1926, the city bought the "Black House" from the last owner and opened the Museum of the History of Lviv, which is now a department of the Lviv Historical Museum. The almost 800-year history of the city is represented on three floors by authentic objects of XIV-XX centuries: symbolic keys to the city, seals of the magistrate, inaugural chains of the president and mayor, benches from the conference hall, portraits of city leaders, coats of arms of Lviv in different historical periods. You can see a model of princely Lviv of the XIII-XIV centuries and a model of the Renaissance town hall.

In the courtyard and the first floor there is a Lapidarium - an exposition of stone monuments of Lviv: carved from stone architectural and sculptural fragments, parts of old monuments, epitaphs, etc. In total, about 50 samples of stone sculpture from ancient, mostly non-existent, buildings in Lviv.

Boryslav Museum of Local Lore was founded in 1987 on the initiative of local historian M. Kryzhanovsky. It is located in the building of the former NKVD unit, where victims of repression were shot during the establishment of Soviet power in the region. The museum has more than 5,000 exhibits. The Department of Nature presents minerals, flora and fauna of Prykarpattia. The most interesting exhibits of the historical department: fragments of an ancient Russian bracelet and silver hryvnia, a wooden barrel for grain made of solid wood, a fire pump of the late XIX century, tools and personal belongings of oil producers, a painting by German artist R. Volkel "Old Borislav". Paintings by contemporary artists are on display.

The first museum of the Boykivshchyna Society in Sambir was organized in 1927 and is dedicated to the history and culture of the natives of the Boykiv region, whose informal capital is considered to be Sambir. In Soviet times, the museum was closed. It was restored in 1990 as the Boykivshchyna Historical and Ethnographic Museum. Located in the former building of the parish school, built in 1679 on the foundations of the sixteenth century. Permanent exhibitions: "Material and economic culture of the Boyks", "The Kozakevich Family" (one of the oldest Sambir families), "The struggle for Ukrainian statehood in the Sambir and Boykiv regions". There are master classes on painting Easter eggs.

Brody Museum of History and Local Lore is located in an old building in the central square of the city. The building was built in the XVIII century. for a Catholic monastery, then there were various administrative institutions. The museum exposition in seven halls covers the history of the region from ancient times to the middle of the XX century. Also presented is a photo gallery of attractions of the area, a panorama of "Brody XVII-XVIII centuries." Of particular interest are materials devoted to the struggle for Ukraine's independence during the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, as well as the activities of the OUN-UPA. Employees conduct tours of the city and Brody Castle.

The wooden church of St. George is one of the brightest works of Galician folk architecture. It is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in the category "Wooden Churches of the Carpathian Region of Ukraine". Belongs to the end of XV - beginning of XVI century. Brought to Drohobych from the Carpathian village. Nadeevo in 1656 and was installed on the site of the burned predecessor. In 1678 the bell tower was built. The interior is painted with magnificent frescoes by S. Meditsky, the ancient carved iconostasis has been preserved. The church has been renovated several times, but has not lost its original appearance. Currently, part of the exposition of the Museum of History and Local Lore is located here. The rest of the exposition is located in the neighboring wooden church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (1613)

The wooden three-log church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Drohobych is considered one of the best buildings in the style of Galician folk architecture. The church was founded in the XVI century, but as a result of construction in 1661 it lost its original appearance. Preserved monumental tempera painting of the XVII century. and unique examples of icon painting of the XV-XVIII centuries. Located in the suburbs of Zvarychi, on the territory of the fire department. Nearby is a wooden bell tower of the XVII century.