Lviv

- a place where cultures, stories and people come together.

This church facade repeats the architectonical program of the Roman church Il Gesu as it is a Jesuit foundation. Numerous such temples around the catholic Europe has been built in course of counter-reformation. Today the church is greek catholic. In the era of communism it used to be a storage hall for books.

This girl, like some other alike - wearing dresses from 19th century -sell at the market square of Lviv traditional sweets. In the background, written in cyrillic the name of the local beer - Lvivskie. Very recommandable.

Some buildings are in good shape, some need a general renovation. You will never discover old buildings in the city center though, that are completely deadbeat. I have seen much worse in the southern parts of the EU.

Old sacral places do need help sometimes desperately. In the communist time the Soviet regime tried to hide the multicultural background of the city, especially the Polish elements. Catholic churches have been turned into storages. Neglected roofs let humidity inside, the fresco paintings took a big damage. Here we are again in the Jesuit church - for an object this big and full of precious works of art, it takes skilled, clever work to raise enough money for conservation.  

In contrast to the church interiors, the soviet time made seemingly little damage to the religiousness of Ukrainian people. Roman - and Greek Catholic, Orthodox and Armenian confession shape the image of the city center through citizens praying in the numerous temples. The special thing about the people of Lviv (and there will be more about it later on) can be seen on this picture. The original catholic church has not been changed for the Greek catholic practice (only two small Greek-Catholic icons symbolize the the Eastern character: to the left and right of the altar), the historical monument remains in its western European iconography.

The reason why I am focussing so much on this particular sacral building is the fact that I witnessed there also an international workshop of professionals from Universities in Lviv, Poland and Romania discussing methods and possibilities of preserving the church as object of European cultural heritage.

For me who for the first time in her life travelled to the city of Lviv, it was a very important experience. Since my family comes from the West-Ukrainian, former Polish territory, also from Lviv, I grew up hearing about the huge humanitarian and mental damage totalitarianism of the 20th century caused to the culture of this region. These were my first impressions who made me think that culture is much stronger than the past regimes. After the Soviet Union collapsed people on both sides of the border are finding ways for understanding, forgiving and reconstructing their unique identity.

Where is light, there is shadow, apparently. I would lie if i would not tell you that i witnessed in this church something highly strange. A Pole who was accidentally in the church during the international workshop started asking weird non-questions which implied the parish priest of the former Jesuit church should restore the building for the needs of Roman-Catholic. Later on, I found out that the guy was trying to provoke the Greek-Catholic parish priest of the church to start bring up conflict between the cooperation partners. I have been told these situations happen, these people are still around. Nobody knows who they actually are.

While strange unidentified persons are appearing here and there in Western Ukrainian metropole, the potpourri of monuments on the green ring surrounding the old core of the city remain still and prove the moving history of the place: here, the king Danillo, the founder of the city. He named it Lwow/ Lviv, which means the Lion's City, as the name of his son was Lion: Lew. And by turning right you will gain this sight: a mixture between Austria-Hungarian secular buildings and a church facade, a hybrid of Italian and Flemish Baroque era.

Outside of the ancient city fortification you enter the traffic chaos of public and private transportation. The state of the public busses "qualifies into the department WTF?" as my Moldovan friend would describe it. The obedience to the the traffic rules by the Ukrainian drivers is non-existing. When crossing the road on zebra stripes, an average German feels like fainting. Thank God I'm Polish. The street situation in Lviv reminds of Cracow's public transportation 15 years ago. So it was not a big shock on the tram when an Ukrainian woman wanting to buy a ticket from the driver gave me the money because she was not able to move forwards in the crowded wagon. Naturally, I passed the money to the person standing next to me, who passed it forward and so on and so on - till the money reached the driver. The ticket including the change travelled through the crowd the same way back. Different topic: the tram drivers in Lviv are women exclusively.

Outside of the city center, you will find Lyczakowski Cemetary. The place is a shrine for many people. Despite any attempts the Soviet regime undertook to destroy the burial ground it was not forgotten. All families who enjoyed social endorsement in Lviv and surroundings are burried there, many intellectuals, aristocrats, public servants, artists, writers, people of military. The cemetary proves indeed the special character of Lviv: various religions and confessions, cultures, languages, alphabets, social spheres and political ideas coexist in this city. And its representatives live and die next to each other. Have a look at some impressions.

There is a military cemetery within the whole complex: Polish soldiers who were fighting against the Soviet army in the Polish-Bolshevik war of 1918-20, who died protecting Lviv. After 1945 Soviets have demolished the military cemetary by bulldozer. So nowadays it is even the more a shrine for the Polish tourists. There are many Polish busses parking in front of the burial grounds bringing the Poles like Pilgrims to this place. There is apparently a whole army of tourist guides who are children of families of Polish minority - they speak good Polish with a slight accent. They lead Polish groups explaining them the history. What I think about this special tourism? It reminds me a bit of German busses traveling to "Ostpreußen" a little bit, but it seems to bring some social position and some financial welfare to the Polish minority living in Lviv and taking care of the graves. It is a historical document. So I guess it is something normal to have.

The girl is wearing traditional Ukrainian dress - on the sleeves you can see the traditional embroidery even. The inscription informs that the man in the grave was a sculptor.

These are some last glimpses at the cemetery. I hope it was not too much. Anyway, you will be having some rest of my reports for quite some time now, that's why I dared to take so much of your attention. Coming up after a break: a report from a traditional Ukrainian wedding. More pictures, less text, less boring, much more fun!