Lviv Things to Do Tips by Dabs

Kornyakt Palace and Italian Yard

More to come

Black Stone House

One of the more notable buildings on the central market square is the Black Stone House at Rynok 4

Market Square (Ploshcha Rynok)

Every European city seems to have a central market square and Lviv is no exception, this seems to be a logical place to start a visit to Lviv, you'll find cafes, restaurants and shops on the streets lining the square, the anchor in the center is City Hall which you can climb to the top of for a view over the city. Photo ops are plentiful with Greek gods in each corner, a bench flanked by lions and 40+ protected architecturally significant buildings including the Black Stone House at Rynok 4, the Kornyakt Palace (King Jan III Sobieski Palace) at Rynok 6 and the Italian Yard inside this Palace.

Museum of Folk Architecture and Life

The Museum of Folk Architecture and Life is an open air outdoor museum with regional examples of structures such as farms, churches, windmills and schoolhouses. Matt had mentioned that the park itself also wasn't very well marked, I thought he meant the individual buildings which did have explanations in English. But no he meant that they paths weren't marked very well, we were fine until we got to the sheep but from there we ended up wandering around the forest with no other humans in sight, every so often coming across another one of the buildings with an older non English speaking woman spinning wool or sweeping with a broom made out of branches. To make it even more interesting it rained on and off during our whole visit, we were pleased that we remembered our brand spanking new raincoats but I wish we had brought shoes with spikes on them as the paths turned to mud and I was slipping and sliding everywhere.

I also wish we had brought some breadcrumbs and laid a path like Hansel & Gretel, I was pretty sure we would be sleeping in the forest that night and eaten to death by the hummingbird size mosquitos.

At some point we just decided to turn around, every so often remembering a distinctive feature of one of the buildings. Which is harder than you think since every single one of them is made out of wood and 90% of them are farmhouses! I was so happy to see a group of schoolkids, surely their teachers weren't so irresponsible as to leave the breadcrumbs home. They giggled when we said hello, they giggled when we said goodbye, we giggled when we realized that we would be sleeping in a bed after all that night. After looking at the map again once we returned to civilization, I'm still not clear where we should have gone to make the loop...

To get there after visiting Lychakiv Cemetery, we walked back up vul Mechnykova to Lychakivska and continued north on the 1st street to the right of the intersection. It wasn't marked at all as far as I could see, after we climbed a small flight of stairs we saw a map of the park, stopping briefly to ask some young ladies swilling vodka if we were on the right path. At the map we turned right and followed the road to the park.

Directions: Tram 2 or 7 to the corner of Lychakivska and Mechnykova and walk north on the street just east of the intersection (Krupyarska)

Lychakiv Cemetery

While some people might find it a bit odd to visit a cemetery while on vacation, Lychakiv cemetery is a place not only of rememberance but filled with beauty and history. Most foreign visitors will not know the many famous people buried here as they are not famous worldwide, I do not know of poet Ivan Franko's work or have seen any of Józefa Markowska films, but you can still appreciate the beautiful monuments that were built to honor their memory. You will find monuments in Ukrainian, Russian, German, and Polish, a reminder that Lviv's history is from many different nationalities.

One of the members of our group bought a map at the ticket office in cyrillic but you could still follow the red path on the map and still hunt for the monuments that are pictured even if you don't know who they are. A large section of the cemetery, shown in white on the map, holds the graves of 2,000 Poles killed during 1918-1920, most of them young men who hadn't even seen their 18th birthday.

There is a small admission charge to visit the cemetery (I think it was 10hr), pay at the kiosk when you 1st enter the grounds.

We took tram 2 from central Lviv but I don't believe that goes by the cemetery, tram 7 should stop right in front and should be the 1st stop after the tram curves onto Mechnikova from Lychakivska. While in this area, you can also visit the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life which is one tram stop before the stop for the cemetery.

Directions: Take tram 7 from central Lviv, there is a stop just outside the cemetery

High Castle Hill

There's no longer a castle on High Castle Hill, just a flag where the castle would have stood and a terrific view over the city should the weather be cooperating. We had been following a walking tour in the Lonely Planet Ukraine guide which said it was an additional 45 minutes to add on the castle hill, after you come across the large restaurant, look behind it and you'll see a metal staircase that will lead you to the path to the top or you can do as some other VTers in our group did and take a taxi almost all the way up