Lvov - Tourist Guide » Castle Hill

High Castle – its’ Sundown

admin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 21:40:05 +0000

As I wrote yestarday, on october 14th Maxim Krivonos seized Castle Hill. This event has been commemorated by stone monument erected in the Park; the street leading to the summit of the hill has been named after Krivonos.
The Castle lost its glory as an impregnable fortress. In 1672 Castle Hill fell into the hands of the Turks. By the beginning of the 18th century the High Castle was falling into decay and could no longer serve as a stronghold. Carl XII, King of the Swedes, seized it without difficulty. A few decades later only a heap of ruins remained of the Castle. The Austrians handed it over to the city as a quarry. Today there still exists a house that was built of stones from former castle walls.
Much later the Hill was planted with trees and a park (currently named Ivan Franko) laid out.

Castle Hill – Industrial part

admin — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 21:48:02 +0000

People had settled at the industrial part of Lvov from time immemorial. In the Stone and Bronze Ages the banks of the Poltva had attracted many a tribe. Late in the 11th and early in the 12th centuries the Slavs established a settlement on the summit of the hill, which later became part of Kiev Rus (also writen as Kyivan Rus). The settlement developed into a principality Zvenigorod, later called Galicia and finally, at the end of the 12th century, the joint Galicia-Volhynian Principality, one of the most prominent Russian states at the time of feudal dissent, known for its cultural and economic development.
In the middle of the 13th century Prince Daniil Romanovich of Galicia came to these parts. It was a trying time. From the east the country was threatened by the Tartar and Mongol hordes who left nothing in their wake but ruins and ashes. Internal strife was headed by the boyar (or bolyar -a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rusian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies) opposition with its stronghold in Galichin and the “mountain land of Peremishl”.

Daniil of Galicia, an outstanding statesman and military leader of his time, did not give way to the enemy within the country or without. He sought support from the rising towns. It is surmised that the town of Lvov was founded by the Prince somewhere about the year 1250.

Castle Hill and its’ Surrounding

admin — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:17:12 +0000

As I wrote in the High Castle thread there is no trace of the Castle Hill( Zamkovaya Gora) in spite of the name of the park – The High Castle (Vysoky Zamok).

High Castle was once the beginning of Lvov. There is a marvelous view of Lvov from the Castle. Highways run through Lvov in every direction. In the evening they are dotted with glimmering lights.
Red and blue trams, scurry to and fro, buses, tramways and cars travel in a never-ceasing stream; the busy modern town is bathed in the bright lights of shops, cafes cinemas and theaters.

In the centre of a small square which is easy to spot among the lofty buildings and cupolas 65 metre tower crowning the graceful silhouette of the Gothic Cathedral.
Closer to the Castle Hill is the Church of the Assumption and the Tower of Kornyakta flanked by the imposing Church of the Dominicans. Further to the right is the Opera Theater. On the hill in the background you can see the slender towers of the Church of Mary Magdalene and right behind it the silhouette of the Church of Saint George and the neo-Gothic Church of Saint Elizabeth. Far in the background stretching across the skyline from the Central Railway Station to New Lvov, in podzamche and other districts of the town, long lines of factory smokestacks seem to pierce the sky. That is the industrial part of Lvov.