horse stable

Remnants of Horse Stables in Lviv

As part of the horse-drawn transportation infrastructure in Lviv, stables were built alongside residential buildings around the city. The stables were one-level structures with haylofts. Sometimes carved horses heads adorned the facades. Not many of these stables remain and those that do are hiding in quiet corners and back alleys […]

Jewish Traces in Lviv: Tombstones Turned to Pavement

When Lviv’s Lenin statue was toppled in 1990, fragments of Jewish tombstones were discovered in the foundation. This came as no surprise—it was a known fact that Nazi and Soviet authorities not only destroyed Lviv’s Jewish cemeteries, but also used the stone to pave the city. Lviv had two Jewish […]

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 […]

The Ukrainian Cooperative Movement in Galicia: Maslosoyuz

Name: Maslosoyuz (The Dairy Union)Type: Association of dairy cooperativesFounded by: Yevhen Olesnytsky, Ostap Nyzhankivsky, L. Horalevych, I. BachynskyYears active: 1904-1944 The Ukrainian Cooperative Movement, which began in Galicia in 1883, addressed the economic plight of the Ukrainian people through the creation of financial, agricultural, and trade cooperatives that enabled Ukrainians to pool their resources, […]

Bracia Mund: How Three Brothers Brought Beauty to Lviv’s Vestibules

One of the most successful businesses in Galicia was Bracia Mund, which was founded in 1898 in Lwów (Lviv). It was co-owned by three brothers Maurycy Mund (1869-~1943), Jakób Mund (1872-~1943), and Ignacy Mund (?-~1943). The company started off with a storefront at 23 Sykstuska Street (now Doroshenka), selling architectural […]

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Lviv: Architecture, Art, Innovation

From Lokalna Istoriya – written by Tetiana Kazantseva with photographs by Yuliya Korytska-Holub, original in Ukrainian Today Shevchenko Avenue in Lviv is very impressive with its luxurious residential and public buildings and cobblestone road along which runs a green promenade. Back in the eighteenth century, this is where the Poltva […]

Billboard-Style Ghost Signs in Lviv

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 […]

Lviv’s Jewish Quarter in the Faded Memories of Witold Szolginia

An excerpt from Tamten Lwów—an eight-volume monograph about Lwów (Lviv)—in which Witold Szolginia describes the Jewish quarter as he remembers it from his visits in the 1930s. Witold Szolginia (1923-1996) was an architect, a native of Lwów until he was expelled to present-day Poland in 1946. Called “the encyclopedist of […]

Bassenas: Antique Sinks in Lviv

Many of Lviv’s old buildings had communal sinks located in courtyards, hallways, or on galleries. No longer a water source for the residents of these buildings, most of the sinks have been removed and today are popular antiques. Only a handful remain in their original locations, especially the decorative ones […]