Lviv Market Square, Rynok Square in Ukrainian, is considered to be the central point of Lviv. The Lviv Town Hall in the middle of the Market Square has a tall tower with a clock. The tower is open for tourists wanting to enjoy a bird’s eye view of Lviv and see the 18th century tower clock mechanism at work.
The Lviv Market Square is almost square in shape and has 44 houses at its perimeter. The older houses on the Lviv Rynok Square date back to the 15th century but most of them were rebuilt at a later date.
Walking clockwise around the Lviv Market Square starting from the Lviv Pharmacy Museum, the fist house we are faced with on the Market Square is the freshly painted and renovated building
#2 Rynok Square, which houses Lviv Museum of Jewelry, open 10.00 to 18.00 all week except Wednesday. The somewhat eclectic Museum also displays portraits of the distinguished Leopolitans of the last 100 years. There is a functioning post office on the first floor continuing the tradition started in the 17th century when the first Lviv post office was opened in this building.
#4 Rynok Square, also known as the Black Mansion because of the color of its exterior, is part of the Lviv History Museum dedicated to the history of Ukrainian Diaspora, Ukrainian liberation movement and Lviv in the interbellum. The museum is open all week, except Wednesday, from 10.00 to 17.00.
#6 Rynok Square at one time used to belong the Polish royal family of Sobieski. Now it houses another division of the Lviv History Museum featuring Historical Jewelry and several interesting examples of old Lviv furniture. The Museum’s working schedule is similar to #4.
#10 Rynok Square houses the Lviv Museum of Ethnography dedicated to old furniture and porcelain. The Lviv Museum of Ethnography on Rynok is now only open for visitor on Wed, Sat and Sun from 11.00 to 17.30. The Museum also exhibits the permanent exhibition of painting on glass by Skolozdra. There is a book store and a souvenir store on the first floor, which are open on all days.
#12 Rynok Square was the location of the Shomrat Shabbat synagogue built in 1878 that ceased to exist during WW2. The synagogue building is still there but is converted into a residential building.
#13 Rynok Square is a custom hat tailors shop with an interesting display of hats in the window.
#14 Rynok Square with a winged Venetian lion over the entrance contains an interesting restaurant fashioned as a Ukrainian Insurgent Army bunker where a doorman in a military uniform with a fake machine gun demands a “password” before you can enter. The restaurant offers free Wi-Fi Internet and English menu.
#16 Rynok Square. Note the brick Gothic arches over the entrance to the building. These date back to the days before the fire of 1527 when most of the buildings in Lviv had a Gothic character. There is also a chocolate store in the building that belongs to the famous Lviv chocolate factory Svitoch.
#17 Rynok Square houses Polish and Ukrainian Lviv cultural societies indicated by several colorful plaques by the entrance. In the cellar of #17 is a restaurant with a slightly eccentric interior decorated by real sized stuffed bores hovering under the ceiling suspended by strings. The restaurant offers free Wi-Fi Internet and English menu.
#18 Rynok Square has a pharmacy and a store that specializes in ribbons, tassels, buttons and other sewing items.
#20 Rynok Square has a bank.
#22 Rynok Square is another bank. Both banks can be used to exchange money and have ATM machines.
#24 Rynok Square contains another part of the Lviv History Museum. This one is dedicated to ancient and medieval history of Lviv and presents an interesting reconstruction of Lviv from the times when the city was surrounded by the defense wall. There is a currency exchange on the first floor offering a slightly better exchange rate compared to a bank.
#25 Rynok Square has a cafe with an exchange office near the entrance.
#26 Rynok Square. The entire building is occupied by a bank.
#27 Rynok Square has a specialized store that sells exclusively clothing buttons. There is also a cocktail bar in the building.
#28 Rynok Square has a souvenir store that also sells footwear.
#29 Rynok Square. What was once Andriolli Passage before the Soviet invasion of Lviv runs through the building connecting it with Teatralna Street near the Jesuit Church. The Andriolli Passage is returning to life with the first cafe recently opened there, and a clothes store.
#30 Rynok Square has a cafe in the basement with unusually tall ceilings.
#31 Rynok Square has a book store deep in its courtyard that sells books, posters and CDs exclusively in Ukrainian language.
#32 Rynok Square is occupied by a very old Lviv department store.
#34 Rynok Square has a top-end restaurant open from 10.00 to 23.00, also offering free Wi-Fi Internet and English menu.
#36 Rynok Square has a pet shop.
#37 Rynok Square contains an art store selling ceramic souvenirs and paintings.
#40 Rynok Square has a small souvenir store and a very interesting private Museum of Ukrainian Military Uniform. Visitors to the museum need to ring the doorbell three times to enter. Bohuslav Liubiv, the museum owner, is a knowledgeable Ukrainian researcher of clothing styles and comes from the old Lviv family of tailors.
#41 Rynok Square is a watch repair shop and an antique store.
#42 Rynok Square contains an optician’s store. Walk inside the building through a very low and narrow tunnel-like corridor to see two interesting courtyards inside.
#43 Rynok Square is a post office.