CASTLES OF LVIV OBLAST: Forgotten Witnesses to History

The Lviv Art Gallery has begun to restore the famous Pidhirtsi Castle, a late Renaissance-style piece of high art, towering on a mountain of the Voroniaky Range.

The castle was built on the request of Crown Hetman Stanislaw Koniecpolski under the project of architect Andrea del Aqua on the foundation of an old fortress. The castle is square with defensive reinforcements on three sides, in the middle of which stands a magnificent palace, the oldest in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. An Italian- style terrace park was laid out next to the castle.

The palace had an interior created by the joint efforts of German, French, and Italian masters. Its spacious ceremonial halls were named Golden, Green, Crimson, Knightly, and Mirrored. Their names depended primarily on the color of valuable Turkish cloth covering the walls and furniture. The halls were adorned with marble portals and mantelpieces, tiled ovens of a highly artistic finish, skillfully-carved wooden plafonds, numerous pictures on biblical and historical subjects, portraits, valuable pieces of applied art, and antique rare furniture. In terms of the interior richness and finesse, the palace was one of the most interesting in Europe.

Waclaw Rzewuski, who owned the castle in the mid-eighteenth century, gathered in the palace the valuable collections of paintings, weapons, books, and memorabilia of Polish King Jan III Sobieski, and opened a theater. Of special interest was the rare collection of firearms and cold steel — sabers, swords, and scimitars — and knightly armor. The castle housed a large library and archives. It was in fact Ukraine’s first palace museum in the second half of the eighteenth century. Waclaw Rzewuski also had a memorial church built, as part of the castle complex, in front of the palace.

In the early twentieth century the Sanguszkis, then the owners, carried out a large-scale restoration of the palace, opening a museum in it. In 1940 the castle was handed over to the Lviv Historical Museum. The castle suffered considerable ruin and plundering during World War II. After the war, its artistic valuables were destroyed to a large extent by Soviet military servicemen of the Zolochiv garrison. What was left was given to Lviv museums, and the castle was used as a health center. A great fire occurred in 1956, leaving behind only the blank walls of once was a palace. In the 1960s the building was restored, but neither the plafonds nor the marble floors could be recreated.

In 1997, by order of the Lviv Oblast State Administration, the castle was transferred to the Lviv Art Gallery. A charitable foundation presided over by the gallery curator Borys Voznytsky was set up last year to restore the Pidhirtsi Palace. The foundation’s main aim is to attract investors, art patrons, and founders for cooperation to restore the palace. For the gallery and Lviv Historical Museum depositories still retain 85% of the art pieces from the palace, meaning that they can return them to the renovated premises intended to house a museum-cum-cultural center. Over $7,000 has already been remitted to the foundation by the Ministry of Culture and the Arts. It is planned to utilize these funds to purchase copper roofing for the palace.

Restoration is going on. The students of Lviv Polytechnic University, in cooperation with the students of Vienna Polytechnic, have carried out the first precise architectural survey of the palace, using up-to-date equipment. Now the halls are being cleared of various alterations, so that they regain the original layout.

The Renaissance castle in Svirzh, still in good condition, is one of the most beautiful in Lviv oblast. It was built on a hill in a picturesque locality and is almost surrounded by lakes. The light building reflects in the water, and the roof’s red tiles stand out against the background of the blue sky.

The castle’s history has been studied very little. It was first mentioned in 1484, when it belonged to the Svirzsky brothers. At that time it was a small building of a purely defensive nature. The modern Renaissance-style structure was built in the mid-seventeenth century by the Galician castellan, Count Alexander Zetner. The castle was the Zetners’ family residence until the nineteenth century. In the nineteenth century it often changed owners but remained intact. In the twentieth century, Count Robert Lamesan Salans, who owned the castle from 1907 to 1930, was especially solicitous of its upkeep. The structure was rebuilt owing to his efforts. Its interior was tastefully decorated with family portraits and valuable furniture. All the work was finished precisely on the eve of World War I. In 1914 the estate was burned by Russian troops and together with its valuables and the library. Only the wall remained standing. However, after the war the count did not ignore the building and again began its long- term restoration. During World War II the castle was looted and partially ruined.

The castle’s modern history is closely connected with the name of Andriy Shuliar, Meritorious Architect of Ukraine, winner of the Taras Shevchenko State Prize. He suggested that the Svirzh castle be restored and used as an art and literature center. This is the only attempt in Ukraine to utilize a castle for such a purpose. Twenty years have passed since restoration began.

Mr. Shuliar supervises the work, but the restoration has not yet been completed due to inadequate funding, leaving the building 70% restored. Considerable funds are required to finish the work. The Union of Architects petitioned the Cabinet of Ministers and the President of Ukraine to allocate budget funds for the preservation of this outstanding architectural monument. A council of art patrons, including some prominent Lviv firms, was established in 1997, which pledged to earmark money to finish repairs and restoration. The search for domestic and foreign investors is always ongoing.

The medieval castles also include one in Zhovkva, which is an integral part of a town-cum-fortress built in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries by the famous warlord, Crown Hetman Stanislaw Zolkiewski whose father, also Stanislaw, was a Galician nobleman of Ruthenian origin. Later, the town and the castle belonged to the Danilowicz family who reinforced the castle and town, surrounding them with earthen ramparts. Their grandson, Polish King Jan III Sobieski, chose Zhovkva Castle as his residence and luxuriously decorated it. An inventory still exists describing each room of the castle and the things there. The castle and the town see the royal times as a period of the highest blossom. The castle was also the residence of Russian Tsar Peter I during the Northern War against the Swedes. Ivan Mazepa also resided there at the time.

In the eighteenth century, when the castle belonged to the Lithuanian magnates Radziwill, a two-tier gallery was attached to the castle. In the nineteenth century, the castle, as well as the whole town, began to decline. Now the building is in an unattractive, half-ruined condition, but preparation has already begun for restoration, and the castle premises are being gradually cleaned up. An interesting program has been drawn up to reconstruct the castle and to use it as a cultural and art complex. The palace is to house a museum, a branch of the Lviv Art Gallery. It is planned to use the castle premises as room for chamber music concerts, a smithy museum, a restaurant for tourists, a chariot yard with the stables, and restoration workshops. A Ukrainian- Polish training center for young people will be opened in the castle.

The castle is part of a historical and architectural complex, so the problems of its restoration are being resolved in the framework of the overall restoration of the town-cum-fortress. Director of the historical and architectural preserve Volodymyr Nakopalo and director of the non-governmental organization The Light of Culture Mykhailo Kubai have developed a number of schemes to revive this “ideal city” of the Renaissance, utilizing the funds to be earned from tourism, business, and investments.

There already is a hope that the castles at Zolochiv, Zhovka, Pidhirtsy, and Svirzh, now under protection, will be restored in good time and preserved for future generations. However, some other castles, for example, in Stare Selo and Pomoriany, should be, if not restored, at least preserved and guarded. As recently as last year, there were tiled stoves in the derelict Pomoriany Castle, but now they are not there, and the villagers claim that some “honest” people take away the truckloads of bricks from the building. Hence, as we see, the preservation of monuments depends not only on state-sponsored measures but also on the cultural level of our people, so often indifferent to their history.

We must halt the ruin of our medieval castles, outstanding monuments of European civilization, for their preservation will contribute to Ukraine’s returning to the European community to which it has always belonged.