Lubomirski Palace
Lubomirski Palace
Ukraine, Lviv
The Lubomirski Palace is a monument of baroque architecture in Lviv. It is located in the central part of the city, on Rynok Square, 10.
The Lubomirski Palace is one of the most successful examples of public architecture in Lviv in the 18th century. From the side of st. I. Fedorov there is a stone portal, in the keystone of which there is a carved cartouche with the date 1695. However, the layout of the cellars and the Gothic lancet vaults preserved in them testify to an earlier foundation of the building.
The building was rebuilt in the 1760s by architects B.Meretin and M.Urbanik according to the project of Jan de Wit on the site of several petty-bourgeois stone houses (among which was the house of the Lviv Latin-speaking poet Shimon Shimonovich). The customer and owner of the palace was Stanislav Lubomirsky (1709–1793), the governor of Bratslav. The appearance of the building is light, ceremonial. The building is made of brick, plastered, in plan it is an elongated rectangle with a small courtyard, three-story. It occupies a whole block between Rynok Square, Russian and Ivan Fedorov streets. The palace has three facades open for viewing. The front, most elegant facade faces the Rynok Square. It is decorated with pilasters with ornamental stucco capitals, the windows are framed with platbands with garlands, and has balconies with openwork metal bars resting on figured brackets. The bottom of the Lubomirsky Palace is weighted, the upper floors are rhythmically divided by pilasters and shoulder blades. The building ends with a patterned attic composed of oval hatches and sculpture. Facades facing Russkaya and I. Fedorov streets are much simpler. The smooth surface of the walls is dissected by flat pilasters with capitals, the windows are framed by strict architraves.
The sculptural decoration of the building belongs to S. Fesinger and was made by master S. Kodetsky. The allegorical nature of the decor is clearly expressed in the design of a rounded corner, composed of military and knightly emblems.
In 1895, the building was bought by the "Prosvita" society and became known as the "Prosvita" house. The building housed a number of Ukrainian cultural and educational institutions. It was visited by Ivan Franko, Lesya Ukrainka, Ethel Voynich, Vasily Stefanik and others. In the Soviet period, the funds of the museum of the Lviv branch of the Institute of Art History, Folklore and Ethnography named after I. M. T. Rylsky of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (now the Institute of Ethnology).