As I wrote earlier today, there were many attempts to seize the Castle Hill and all of them faild until 1648 when entire Ukraine was enveloped in a national war. As the battlefield extended to Galicia the Ukrainian peasant and the urban poor lookedupon the Cossacks as their saviours who would put an end to national and social oppression. The people of Lvov had high hopes: they prepared arms, ready to come out against the Polish nobility (szlachta), to chase out the vicegerent and the Polish army. When Khmelnitsy marched into Lvov they helped him to gain hold of the Glinyansky Szlach, to seize the Churches of Saint Lazarus and Saint Mary, the Church of Saint George and the estate of the Jesuits (the present Ivan Franko Park).
Towards the end of September 1648, Khmelntsky’s troops besieged the garrison of the High Castle. Numerous attacks on the fort were beaten back. Finally, on October 14th a detachment under “first colonel” Maxim Krivonos – one of the Hetman’s bravest followers – with a following of Ukrainians, Moldavians and the valiant Don Cossacks seized the Castle.
Cossacs
Ivan Franko (1856-1916)
[...] Bogdan Khmelnitsky Street back to the foot of the High Castle and turning left one comes upon a broad boulevard overgrown with trees and shrubbery. On the [...]