‘Obuwie Wycierać’: A Reminder to Keep Kraków’s Entryways Clean

In several of Kraków’s pre-WWII buildings, one can find inscriptions near the entrance asking those entering to “wipe your shoes” (“Uprasza się obuwie wycierać”). Maintaining a clean building would have been more difficult in those times as fewer streets were paved, making it muddier than today. There would have also […]

Searching for Sunflowers in the Architecture of Lviv and Kraków

In the first couple months of the full-scale war (after being displaced from Lviv and living in Poland), searching for sunflowers in the architectural detail of Kraków became a way to soothe my soul, to find solidarity with Ukraine during those highly uncertain and volatile times. Each time I would […]

Wartime Lviv in Photos: A Look at the Measures to Protect Citizens and Architectural Heritage

Today marks one year since the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. One year since I packed a backpack and left for the Polish border, not knowing when or if I would ever return to my home in Lviv. So much can be said about the last year, the […]

German-Era Bomb Shelter Signs in Kraków

One of the obsolete remnants of the past has again become relevant in Lviv is the WWII-era bomb shelter signs. Across the city traces of such signs from the times of the Nazi occupation can still be found. Soon after I arrived in Kraków (in late February 2022) I found […]

Architectural Styles of Galician Railway Station Buildings (1856-1914)

A look at some of the different architectural styles used for passenger railway station buildings across Galicia, from the time of the first railway line (1856-1861) to World War I (1914). 1856-1861: The First Galician Railway | Gothic Revival Lviv’s very first railway station was constructed in 1861 for the […]

Capturing Ternopil in its Historical Architectural Details

Architectural detail is found everywhere, from the defining shape of a doorknob and the waves created by a balustrade to the winding form of a staircase and the rounded culmination of a handrail. It is in these details that we can see the thoughtfulness, care, time, and skill that was […]

The Pearl on the Sian River: The Ukrainian Narodnyi Dim in Peremyshl

By Kasia Komar-Macyńska for Nasze Słowo The history about the uniqueness of the architecture and secrets held by the Narodnyi Dim (National or People’s Home) in Peremyshl (Przemyśl). In 2021, this building will be 117 years old. Exploring its past is like collecting puzzle pieces that were scattered all over the house […]

The Casino de Paris: A Separate Multicultural Galician World

Below is a translation of Daryna and Volodymyr Olshansky’s “The History of One Theater,” published Feb. 2, 2021, on Zbruc “In the center on the left side of Lesia Kurbasa Street in Lviv there is a building that you cannot pass by without noticing — the eye will first linger […]

Lviv’s Antique Decorative Floor Tiles

One of the most colorful and decorative traces of the times of Austrian Lviv (Lemberg) can be found right under our feet — in the entrances, vestibules, and stairwells of many of Lviv’s buildings, from the floors of the finest banks and institutions to ordinary residential apartments in the city’s […]

Centers of a World that No Longer Exist

By Kasia Komar-Macyńska for Nasze Słowo A bell tower was here, right here. Now we go inside… there was a white and black cement tile floor. But when the church was dismantled, they probably liked it, so they took it. But for some reason it was left at the sanctuary — […]