Top 3 Museums in Lviv

22 February, 2016

Kiev is not the only place to explore culture and arts in Ukraine. With plenty of small museums dedicated to outstanding personalities or some interesting specialties, there are also big cultural institutions that store and display huge (and not any less fine than in Kiev) collections of art in Lviv. You can’t see all of them once in a time, however, begin with the top 3 museums in Lviv.

Andriy Sheptytsky National Museum

One of the most important museums of national art and cultural treasures in Lviv was founded by Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytsky in 1905. The collection of the museum counts more than 140,000 unique items in total: icons, manuscripts, rare ancient books, decoratively carved pieces of art, metal and plastic artworks, fabrics embroidered with gold and silver.

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With rich representation of Ukrainian art from the XII till the beginning of the XX century, The Andriy Sheptytsky National Museum in Lviv takes special pride in presenting the largest and most complete collection of medieval sacral art of the XII-XVIII centuries. The museum also boasts a unique monument of Ukrainian Baroque style - the Bohorodchansky Iconostasis.

Lviv Art Gallery

Photo: Lviv Art Gallery Official Facebook page
Lviv Art Gallery is the largest museum of arts in Ukraine and is one of the top museums in Lviv with approximately 50,000 exhibits. Its collection consists of unique paintings, sculptures and works of graphic art of Western and Eastern Europe beginning from the middle ages until nowadays.
Diverse works created by artists belonging to various schools and artistic trends represent the European art of the 20th century: the Late Gothic style from Germany, one of the largest collections of Austrian art of Baroque era in Europe, the best representation of Polish art of the XVI-XX centuries outside of Poland are complemented with some examples of French, Dutch, Flemish and Spanish art.

‘Lychakivsky Tsvyntar’ (Lychakiv Cemetery) Museum

Occupying a total area of 40 hectares, apart from being just a beautiful place of interest in Lviv, the Lychakiv Cemetery is also classified as a historic museum and cultural heritage site. It was officially founded in 1786 by the new Austrian government in Lemberg (Lviv), which was then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. The oldest tombstone of the cemetery dates back to 1675. The Lychakiv Cemetery is also famous for 23 beautifully adorned chapels and shrines, which belonged to wealthy Lviv families, and the tombstones of many famous Ukrainians and some of the European artists.

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The top 3 museums in Lviv are surely worth visiting. However, don’t hesitate to visit the others, they will not disappoint you!