ghost signs Archives - Forgotten Galicia

Ghost Signs of Przemyśl

Areta — Thu, 07 Aug 2025 14:18:46 +0000

Today a small city in eastern Poland, Przemyśl (Peremyshl in Ukrainian transliteration) was once a major city in Galicia. Przemyśl’s population consisted of many nationalities, including Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, Germans, and Czechs. According to the Austrian census of 1830, the city was home to 7,538 people of whom 1,508 (20%) […]

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Architectural Celebration and Financial Security: How the Dnister Insurance Company Appeared in Lviv

Areta — Sat, 14 Oct 2023 12:05:00 +0000

From Lokalna Istoriya – text and photographs by Yuliya Korytska-Holub, original in Ukrainian The building of the Dnister Insurance Company, situated at the corner of Pidvalna and Ruska streets in Lviv, has been considered a gem of the city since its inception. Recent renovations have only heightened its elegance, though not without […]

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Ghost Signs of Kraków

Areta — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 09:36:52 +0000

Kraków was considered as the unofficial capital of the western part of Galicia and the second most important city in the region. As in other former Galician cities, today various traces of its time under the Austrian Empire can still be found in the urban landscape. In particular, Kraków has […]

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Fire Marks from the Kraków Mutual Insurance Society

Areta — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 20:25:05 +0000

Shortly before the full-scale war started, I was working on an article about fire insurance companies that worked in Lviv (Lwów / Lemberg) in Austrian times. Thanks to this, I had learned about the Kraków Mutual Insurance Society and knew that their former headquarters still stood in Kraków. Thus some […]

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Prewar Glass Inscriptions in Lviv

Areta — Sat, 05 Dec 2020 13:49:14 +0000

Around Lviv etched window inscriptions that date from before the war can still be found, though not many — glass is the most fragile of all remnants of the past. Most of these are old street names and building numbers, conscription numbers, and other informative messages that helped people orient […]

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Photographs of Prewar Lviv: Ukrainian Signage

Areta — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 09:58:10 +0000

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 […]

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Billboard-Style Ghost Signs in Lviv

Areta — Sat, 27 Jun 2020 10:14:00 +0000

Most of Lviv’s ghost signs are found on the front of buildings, advertising products sold in a particular store. But there are a handful of larger ones as well, located on exposed sides of buildings, sometimes above the rooftops or on the entire side of a building. Often they were […]

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

Areta — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 11:52:00 +0000

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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Photographs of Prewar Lviv: Hand-Painted Signs

Areta — Sat, 08 Feb 2020 13:01:34 +0000

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 […]

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Medieval Signage in Lviv

Areta — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 10:31:03 +0000

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 […]

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