Lvov - Tourist Guide » Galicia

Lvov – Renaissance Period – Continuation

admin — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:25:08 +0000

Contemporaries used to say that Lvov had “few Russians but much of Russia.” All this imbued the Renaissance in Lvov with unique local features.
Local artistic traditions which had deep roots in ancient Russia were too viable to give way under the impact of new influences. They forced the architects, sculptors and painters from abroad to adapt themselves in part to the traditions of local architecture. That is why Lvov architecture of the Renaissance age acquired the inimitable, original coloring that accounts for the town’s characteristic appearance.
The Church of the Assumption earliest building dates back to the early 14th century when Lvov was under the rule of the Calician Princes. After it collapsed it was followed by two more churches. The third was burnt down in 1571. Twenty years later the Stauropegia (Greek Orthodox Church) Fraternity raised the fourth Church of the Assumption which has survived to our day. It was completed in 1629 and consecrated two years later.

Ancient Lvov

admin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:49:54 +0000

As I wrote before, Daniil founded Lvov arround the year 1250 and didn’t give way to the enemy within the country: The centre of the town was the fortress, or detinets which was surrounded by a wall, and numerous ramparts and moats. A high watchtower dominated the settlement. Near it were the ammunition dumps and depots. At the foot of the hill, the site of the present Bogdan Khmelnitsky Street and the former Volhynski Szlach (Road) lay the Okolny Gorod or Padgoradye (the town outskirts). Volhynski Szlach was the main thoroughfare of that time linking Kolomiya and Galich with Volhynia and Kiev and was of great economic and strategic importance. Here, where a small square today marks the beginning of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Street was the former Old Marketplace (Staryi Rynok) – the trade centre of ancient Lvov. The old name of the street pod Bramoy – denotes the site of the gateway to Okolny Gorod (Padgoradye). A fortified wall fenced in the palace of the Prince, the houses of the boyars and their retinue. Along the poltva bordering the hill from the west, north and south, lay the scattered settlements of the merchants, craftsmen and the urban poor.

The town grew, constantly fighting for its life. In 1259 the Tartar Khan Burunday forced the Princes of Galicia and Volhynia to pull down the fortifications. Lev Daniilovich “opened up” the town but fortified it again soon afterwards. New attempts of the Tartars to seize Lvov, this time under Khan Telebug, ended in failure.

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.