Free tourist Attractions in Lviv
So, you are in Lviv now and want to spend a day on your own. No tour guides, just visit Lviv sites by yourself, and no paying of entry fees to see things. Also having a Lvivske beer as you go whenever you feel like it sounds like not a bad idea at all. Lviv museums and exhibitions do not cost much. Your would be looking at paying $2 at the most for an entry ticket to most of them. But hey, if they exist, why not go for the freebies first. More –>
Tourist sights in Lviv
A good way to experience Lviv is to visit its sights on your own, without the hustle of being part of a tour group. As a suggestion, I have selected and wrote short descriptions for the 7 major landmarks of Lviv. Tour Lviv at your own pace and observe many interesting details about the city. This is a great way to see Lviv. Below are the links to the text about these sights. Enjoy your tours:
THE HIGH CASTLE IN LVIV
View from High Castle
To get to the High Castle Hill, following the map, walk for about 25 minutes generally north-east from the Town Hall on the Market Square.
The High Castle Hill, 413 m (1355 feet) above sea level, is the best vantage point for a panoramic view of Lviv. The base of the steel flag mast in the center of the viewing area shows the cardinal points to help in orientation. This is one of the highest spots of the low range of hills stretching through Lviv and across the border into Poland. More –>
LVIV TOWN HALL AND MARKET SQUARE
Lviv Town Hall
It’s been a long time since the Market Square in Lviv (Rynok in Ukrainian) stopped being a commercial market. The buildings around the square witnessed busy market days, public gatherings and executions. The earliest of the buildings date back to the 15th century, but most were rebuilt after the big fire of 1527 which destroyed most of the gothic buildings of Lviv. The Town Hall in the center of the Market Square is more recent and was built in the 19th century. Its predecessor did not survive after the old town hall tower collapsed of its own weight in 1826. More –>
LVIV CHURCHES
Dominican Church
The Armenian Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of the oldest standing structures in present-day Lviv. A small Armenian church modeled after the Cathedral of Ani in the ancient Armenian capital was built here in the years 1363–1370. It was founded by an Armenian merchant and established as the mother church of the Armenian community on the spot where a quince tree brought from Armenia produced fruit with a cross-shaped pattern inside. The best point to view the church from the outside is by looking through the iron bars of the fence into the courtyard from Armenian street. More –>
SVOBODY AVENUE IN LVIV
Lviv Opera
We’ll start our walk along Svobody Avenue near the fountain with the statue of the Virgin Mary. When you look south of the fountain, your eye catches the monument to the great Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz. Come up for a closer look to see the sculptural composition called Inspiration – an angel handing a lyra to the great poet. Further away and to the right stands the famous Hotel George, named after its original owner George Hoffman. At the top of the George Hotel, over its main entrance, you can see St.George the Dragon Fighter on a horse. More –>
OLD LVIV JEWISH SECTION
Jakob Glanzer Synagogue
Let’s take a walk around the oldest Jewish quarter, where Jews lived since Lviv was founded. We will start from the corner of Ruska and Fedorova Streets. Look at the heavy buttresses of the corner building to your right. Here was the gate to the Jewish part of town. Every night the gate was locked from within for the safety of its residents. Building #20 to your right underwent several modifications but still preserves some of its old elements that were typical of a Jewish house in Lviv – on the first floor you can distinguish a store, now a cafe, and the entrance to the storage space in the basement. More –>
LYCHAKIV CEMETERY
Lychakiv Cemetery
Lychakiv Cemetery was opened in 1786 following an imperial Austro-Hungarian edict ordering that all cemeteries be moved outside of the city limits, and served the central, wealthier part of Lviv, a fact that contributed to its unusual splendor. Standing at the neo-gothic entrance gate, look inside to see a wide open square with a number of chapels at the perimeter. These are the burial chapels of the Lviv rich from before the Second World War. The chapel on the right with a round dome belongs to the Baczewski family who owned a Lviv distillery that produced over 300 types of liquor. More –>
LVIV FOLK ARCHITECTURE AND RURAL LIFE MUSEUM
St. Nicholas Church
Right from the museum gate, if you look straight ahead to where the paved path curves to the right, to the left of this path you can see one of the museum’s oldest exhibits – the wooden thatched house from the village of Oriavchyk in the Carpathian Mountains built in 1792. The house comes from the area in the mountains to the south-west of Lviv, inhabited by the Ukrainian ethnicity called Boyko. Wood was the most common construction material in the Carpathians, being widely available and providing good heat insulation. More –>
