A Look at 1920s Galicia: Photographs of Daily Life in the Countryside

Below is a collection of photographs that depict daily life in the Galician countryside in the 1920s. The photographs were found on eBay by German collector Wolfgang Wiggers, who subsequently published them on his Flickr page. At the time the photographs were taken, Galicia was part of interwar Poland. All […]

Kosiv: Former Center of Natural Medicine and Vegetarianism

Back during Austrian times and up until World War II, the Carpathian Hutsul town of Kosiv (formerly Kosów) was a center of natural medicine and vegetarianism. This is thanks to Dr. Apolinary Tarnawski (1851-1943), a Polish physician who at the end of the nineteenth century founded a private sanatorium in […]

Photographs of Prewar Lviv: Ukrainian Signage

In Lviv, according to the Austrian census of 1910, 51% of the city’s population was Polish Roman Catholic, 28% Jewish, and 19% Ukrainian Greek Catholic. Linguistically, 86% of the city’s population used the Polish language while 11% used Ukrainian (Lviv). Looking at these statistics, it’s no surprise that the Ukrainian language was […]

Galicia’s Sokolnie: The Architectural Heritage of the Polish Sokół Society

The former buildings of the Sokół Polish Gymnastic Society stand today in the center of almost every Galician town on both sides of the Polish-Ukrainian border. Serving as sports and cultural centers, these were once significant buildings in the town space and often outstanding architectural masterpieces. Although today few of […]

Lviv’s First Tram Depot

The first electric tramline in Lviv was built ahead of the General Regional Exhibition of 1894 to bring visitors from the main railway station to the site of the exhibition. To power the line, the first municipal electric station of direct current (DC) was also built, and to house the […]

Austrian Military Barracks in Lviv – Part II

From the End of Nineteenth Century to WWI When Galicia came under the rule of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1772, no specially built barracks or barracks complexes existed in Lviv. At first, the Austrian military used the premises of Lviv’s monasteries for magazines (ammunition storehouses) and barracks (Ger: Kaserne/Caserne; Polish: koszary; Ukr: касарні, казарми, кошари). […]

Dom Inwalidów: Where Disabled Military Veterans Retired in Lviv

The Romantic historicist ensemble of the former Dom Inwalidów / K. K. Invalidenhaus (Invalids’ House) is a valuable monument of architecture and history. An initiative of the emperor of the Austrian Empire, the Dom Inwalidów was a retirement home for disabled military veterans in Lwów / Lemberg from 1863 to […]

Ul. Sykstuska: Doroshenka Street Before the War

Doroshenka is today one of Lviv’s most beautiful streets, boasting many outstanding examples of architecture, especially in the styles of Neoclassicism, Historicism, Secession, and Functionalism. The street’s historic name – Sixtuskagasse / Sykstuskagasse (German) and ul. Sykstuska (Polish) – comes from the name of a famous doctor and burgomaster of […]

The Ukrainian Cooperative Movement in Galicia: Narodna Torhovlia

Name: Narodna Torhovlia (People’s Trade)Type: Consumer cooperativeFounded by: Vasyl Nahirnyi and Appolon NychaiYears active: 1883-1944 The Ukrainian Cooperative Movement in Galicia addressed the economic plight of the Ukrainian people through the creation of financial, agricultural, and trade cooperatives that enabled Ukrainians to pool their resources, obtain less expensive loans and insurance, and pay less […]

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 […]