Beautiful Lviv city parks recently have become more than just a place to take walk among the trees.They turned into vibrant venues hosting various cultural events such as music and food festivals, sports events, parties, outdoor workshops etc. Parks become popular destinations for spending pleasant and fun weekends with friends and family. They manage to combine meadows, woodlands, ponds, lakes, and streams with museums and other man-made attractions; they also give a chance to escape the tourist crowds among a haven of winding, tree-lined pathways, waterfalls, and ponds.
Read: Places for Rest Around Lviv

Stryjsky Park

This is the largest and the most beautiful park in Lviv. It is also considered to be one of the best landscape parks in Europe. Stryjsky Park is a national monument of landscape architecture. The park was founded in 1876-1877. The author of the project was Arnold Rohring, an Austrian landscape designer and architect. The park territory (56 hectares) is divided into three landscape units: the lower zone, park area, upper terrace (the place of the former "Oriental Auctions" annually held here since 1922).

Stryisky Park is famous for its various collections of plants (more than 200 species), greenhouse and two alleys — of plane-trees and that of lime-trees.
Besides, the pond with white swans adds to the park's beauty greatly.
There is a single monument here — a monument to Jan Kilinski, a national Polish hero (1894, arch. J. Markovski, restored in 2009).

Ivan Franko Park

This is one of the oldest parks in Eastern Europe, the first public park in Ukraine. It occupies the area of 11,6 hectares.
At the end of XVI c. a rich Lviv citizen John Scholz-Volfovich established the park with his own private funds. Over time, this park and neighboring lands became the property of Jesuits. The Jesuits had built brick buildings, and already in 1715 they started to build a brewery and an inn. At the end of XVIII c., when the Jesuit Order was abolished, this area became the property of the Austrian government.
In 1919 the park was named in honor of the Polish national hero Tadeusz Kosciuszko. Today a lot of people in Lviv especially those of older generation continue to call it the Kosciuszko park. 
The majority of trees come from 1855 and 1890 — the time of last two reconstructions. Though one can meet here more ancient species, three mighty giant oaks, for example (their age is more than three centuries).

This is also one of the most beloved parks for dog owners. Recently a special section for walking dogs was constructed in the park. It is located at the very top of the park near Dniester Premier Hotel. This area is specially designed and equipped with everything needed for spending a fun time with your pets.

Vysoky Zamok (High Castle)

The park was founded in 1835 at the slopes of the Castle Hill (or Lviv High Castle as it is called now). Its total area is 36,2 hectares. It consists of two terraces. There is a gardener's house, a memory sign in honor of Maxym Kryvonis (one of Cossacks leaders), a restaurant and an observation point on the lower terrace of the park. On the upper terrace there is a man-made burial mound with an observation platform (413 m above sea level). It was dedicated to the 300th anniversary of Liublin union and was filled up in 1869—1900 by Polish community. Tourists also can observe the remaining fragment of the High Castle fortification wall.
Park Vysoky Zamok is a beloved destination for joggers, as due to its varying altitudes it offers many jogging routes of different difficulty levels as well one of the best views over the city while you jog.

Park of Culture (Bohdan Khmelnytsky Park)

This is one of the youngest parks in Lviv. The park was laid in 1951 and opened in 1959. At that period the park was considered to be the largest object of landscape architecture of stalinism epoch. These days Park of Culture is one of the most important venues of Lviv, it hosts the major jazz festival of Europe Alfa Jazz Fest, popular Street Food So Good festival, Outdoor Movie Theater and many other important events.

Park Znesinnya 


It is one of the first regional landscape parks in Ukraine, founded within the city borders. "Znesinnya" is very interesting from the historic point of view. Ethnographical open-air museum Shevchenkivsky Gai, one of the most prominent historic and cultural heritage sites is situated here.

Pohulyanka

The park was founded in 1810. At that time the owner of this place was a famous patron and advocate Franciszek Venhlinsky. He built a small palace and planted the hill with beech on Pohulianka. So locals began to call this place "Venhlinsky's Forest».
In the middle of the 19th century the park with the whole quarter was bought by Yan Klein. He drained a park pond and built a brewery instead. Later there was opened a famous restaurant. During that time the park wasn't treated with a proper attention and it slowly turned into a forest. From 1948 till nowadays there was a winery instead of the brewery.
These days Pohulyanka offers many walking trails; there are several decorative ponds in the lower part of the park. You can get to Pohulianka by tram # 7, which terminus is located nearby the main entrance to the park.
Read: National Parks in Ukraine
Beautiful Lviv parks offer a slice of nature in the middle of the busy city. At these parks, visitors can explore winding pathways, picnic in open green meadows, or wile away the afternoon next to a pond.
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