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Forgotten Galicia

Forgotten Galicia

Remnants of the past found in Lviv, Galicia & the former Austrian Empire

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Ghost Signs of Lviv: A Look into the City’s Faded Past

June 1, 2020

I love ghost signs. These messages from the past are one of my favorite parts of the urban landscape. I get overly excited every time I discover a new one. Ghost signs (aka fading ads or brick ads) are old hand-painted signs that have been preserved on a building for […]

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February 8, 2020

Photographs of Prewar Lviv: Hand-Painted Signs

I’ve combed through hundreds of old photographs of Lviv (Lemberg / Lwów) in search of hand-painted signs that are visible today as “ghost signs.” While I’ve only been able to find one such example – a photograph of a milkhouse, the search was not in vain: I came out with […]

February 27, 2018

Medieval Signage in Lviv

Medieval ads and signs have survived in and around Lviv’s Rynok Square. These are metal signs or stone carvings located above entrance ways. The emblems marked the locations of guilds, workshops, stores, taverns, etc. Signage during this era used symbols since the general populace was illiterate. Entrances to taverns were […]

April 25, 2016

Prague’s House Signs

Before Empress Maria Theresa introduced identifying numbers to Prague in 1770, houses were known and located by allegorical symbols. Many of them originally had alchemical significance. The Two Suns The Golden Key Castle goldsmiths lived in this house in the 17th century They paid fees to the city and thus […]

September 15, 2014

Chimney Sweep Sign in Lviv

Lviv, like most cities in the nineteenth century, needed chimney sweeps to keep chimneys clean from the soot that accumulated from burning coal. The bas-relief of a chimney sweep on Anhelovycha Street is one of the only reminders of the era of chimney sweeps. At the beginning of the twentieth […]

Forgotten Galicia

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The Greek Catholic Church of the Protection of the The Greek Catholic Church of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary | 1904 | Rakovets

The single-nave, six-domed wooden Church of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in 1904, as indicated by the inscription above the entrance, according to a design by the renowned architect Vasyl Nahirny. To the east of the church stands a preserved two-tier wooden belfry with three bells. In the early 1960s, the church was closed, and only on January 15, 1989, was the first Divine Liturgy held again in the reopened church.

The church’s interior decoration holds unique artistic value: the iconostasis, the wooden canopy over the altar, wooden candelabra, and icons. Several of the icons, as well as a statue of the Virgin Mary found in the church, come from the semi-ruined Church of St. Valentine, which is also located in Rakovets.

#woodenchurch #architecturalheritage #oldchurches #galiciancountryside #ukraine
Ruins of St. Valentine’s Roman Catholic Church i Ruins of St. Valentine’s Roman Catholic Church in Rakovets

The church was originally built in 1704 by the Jesuits on the grounds of an old Polish cemetery. At first, it was a wooden structure, but in 1822, the foundation for a new church was laid in its place, and construction was completed in 1856. The church was built of fieldstone and partially of brick.

In 1890, the church was partially destroyed by fire but was later restored, and an ornate rooftop cupola was added. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the wooden belfry was replaced with a stone one.

In 1946, the church was closed, and part of its interior furnishings were burned. Some rescued images, including a depiction of St. Valentine by Otto Edward Borzemski, were transferred to the local Greek Catholic church, where they remain to this day.

From 1952 until the 1980s, the church was used as a collective farm warehouse, which led to its deterioration.

Today, only the painted vaults of the sacristy have survived.

#galiciancountryside #oldchurches #abandonedchurch
#architecturalheritage #ukraine
Entering Lviv's Old Town | Early evening on a sunn Entering Lviv's Old Town | Early evening on a sunny day 🌞 in early autumn 🍁 | Photo taken yesterday on my way home from work
Kraków Hotel (today the Court of Appeal of the Lv Kraków Hotel (today the Court of Appeal of the Lviv Region) was built in 1913. Based on the first-prize-winning design by Henryk Zaremba and Rudolf Matsura, the final project for the hotel was developed by architect Michał Łużecki. At the time of its construction, it was one of the largest and most modern hotels in the city, combining Secession style with elements of the Renaissance and Gothic.

The stairwell features stained-glass windows created by the S.G. Żeleński stained glass workshop in Kraków in the Secession style (Art Nouveau). Today, the stained-glass windows on the top two floors are boarded up from the outside to protect them from bomb blasts. The window on the second floor has the S.G. Żeleński inscription. 

Other historical inscriptions in the main vestibule and stairwell include the Bracia Mund company mark on the black and white tiles, which they supplied, and the Polish inscription "szatnia," which is still etched above the door to the former cloakroom.

#stainedglasswindows #sgżeleński #archidetails #archilovers #tileaddiction #staircase #lviv
A new observation deck has recently opened in one A new observation deck has recently opened in one of the towers of the Lviv Organ Hall (@lvivorgan), a concert venue housed in the former Roman Catholic Church of St. Mary Magdalene, which dates back to the 17th century

#lviv #lwów #oldchurches #organhall #cityview #architecturalheritage #ukraine
Greek Catholic Church of the Nativity of the Bless Greek Catholic Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Pidtemne. The wooden church was built in 1900 on the site of an earlier, also wooden, church.
An abandoned Roman Catholic church in Pidtemne (Po An abandoned Roman Catholic church in Pidtemne (Podciemno), built in the 1930s in the functionalist style, a variant of modernism. Characteristic features of this style, visible here, include simple geometric forms, minimal ornamentation, and an asymmetrical composition. Other distinctive elements are the round porthole windows and sections of exposed red brick.

Most likely the church was never fully outfitted or consecrated. After the resettlement of the Polish parishioners to Poland in 1946, the chapel was closed and later repurposed as a village club. Today, it stands empty, though its overall condition remains relatively sound. In recent years, crosses have even been reinstalled on the chapel.
Historically, coat hangers (for drying, brushing, Historically, coat hangers (for drying, brushing, and airing them out) were often integrated into the ironwork of gallery banisters across Lviv’s courtyards. While most feature simple, curved designs, here is a unique example in which the coat hangers take on the shape of a menorah. As we can see here, nowadays these fixtures are sometimes used as plant hangers.
Additionally, this courtyard retains traces of an old coal lift, a feature originally included in the building’s plans.
#lookup #courtyards #lviv #lookup #courtyards #lviv
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