Lviv Travel

Lviv is a proud and majestic city and at the same time a beautiful and hospitable city. Lviv is a place where people should visit at least once in their lives. To wander on narrow small streets made of ancient stone blocks, to drive a yellow-red street car in the centre, to drink a cup of Lvivian coffee in one of those silent European style cafes, to visit the numerous ancient temples and Catholic churches, to hear the unforgettable dialect of the local western Ukrainian people - to dive into an epoch of a medieval city. Here the past and the present are organically intertwined. It is a city of cathedrals, temples, architectural monuments and it also has modern regions.

The central part of Lviv is declared as a historical and architectural reserve and in 1998 it entered the list of the world cultural heritage of UNESCO. Under protection are about two thousand historical, architectural and cultural objects.

Lviv is a symbiosis of styles, stories and epoch. On lampposts the colourful light bulbs are hanging, the car drivers stopping at the pedestrian crossings, in the mornings at six o'clock the bakeries are ready with their fresh scents.

At the same time it is often possible to bump into an automatic water machine with a chained drinking cup, some shop windows can still be decorated by the Soviet era drawings. The benches are still made of wood there. Here you will find the interesting combination of the classic European style and the spirit of the USSR era.

Inhabitants of Lviv often hope for the "London" kind of weather and advise tourists to visit them in the springtime, when the entire city is in its full colour. Other good time to go to Lviv is in the summer, if it is not too hot - or in the early autumn. During this season here it is especially beautiful and if you arrive here for the first time, you will be continually surprised, when you fill find "Krakow", "Budapest" and "Florence" in Lviv.

Lviv is saturated with monuments of history, culture and architecture - there is just so much to see. A good way to begin is to start with the old central part of a city. On days off the car noise will not disturb you, the streets are vacant and only the streetcar can break the silence with the knocking of its wheels. The Market area will surprise tourists with its multi-coloured houses. They have remained from The Gothic Lviv era and they just escaped the fire of 1527 when the city was almost completely burnt down.

In the centre area situates the Lviv town hall - the administration building. The building is from 1835 and was made in the Viennese classicism style. The square construction with an internal courtyard has witnessed many historical events - repeatedly burnt and wrecked. In 1852 the Town hall was reconstructed and now there is a city council of Lviv. Over a building there is a tower with a viewing platform - from where the amazing view of the city opens.

Excursion across the old Lviv is almost impossible without visiting the local book flea market on the Museum area. Here are the monuments of the first printer Ivan Fedorovu and the Ukrainian kozak Ukrainian Shuchkar, clothed in a national Ukrainian shirt and with the same kind of moustaches that Taras Bulba used to have. In Lviv there is also the Kreschatik - Freedom prospectus In fact here you will feel the Ukrainian spirit, fill with internal freedom and the feeling of the present.

The extraordinary view on a city opens from a viewing platform of the High castle. It is the highest point of Lviv, a hill where the most beautiful old park with centenary trees is located.

Lviv - a city of churches, monasteries, cathedrals and temples. One of the most famous is the Pokrovy Presvjatoj Bogoroditsy's temple, which is located in the Grushevsky Street 5 - designed by Italian architect Frantsa Platsidi. It will be and interesting place to visit for fans of baroque architecture. The temple was called the Sacred Nikolay's church until 1990.

Lviv - an extraordinary city. It is necessary to notice that people there are exclusively kind, even

if they have got more than their fair share of troubled times in the past history. You have to go there and experience the city atmosphere yourself and let it convince you. A rest in Lviv will stay in your memory for a long time - it will be like a trip back to the Middle Ages.