Drohobych. Touristic and Hospitable

During my first trip to Drohobych I was struck by the number of historical monuments, by the beauty and the special medieval atmosphere, and I noted with regret that this amazing Precarpathian city was little known to tourists. In the nearby resort towns of Truskavets and Morshyn the excursion guides do not even mention Drohobych. I never forgot the city in the Lviv region, and after some time an inner signpost led me back there again.

Drohobych. The Market Square and Truskavetska Street

That day, by a happy coincidence, the tourist season was opening, with excursions, a bicycle ride, theatrical performances, quests and other interesting events. I gladly joined the celebration; at the tourist information centre in the Town Hall building I was given bright booklets with descriptions and a plan of the main sights, some of which I will introduce to you.

Pylyp Orlyk Street. The Church of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 1995.

Ivan Mazepa Street

The promenade is best begun by climbing the Town Hall tower, from which an incredible panorama of the Market Square and the historic centre of Drohobych opens up. A detailed account of the climb up the clock tower can be read here.

The panorama of Drohobych from the clock tower of the Town Hall

The city administration building has an inner courtyard where those who wish to keep their muscles in tone can learn Nordic walking.

The Town Hall. The inner courtyard

Inspired and armed with poles or without them, we continue our promenade along the streets and squares of Drohobych.

Kovalska Street

The main city square is framed by two- and three-storey stone houses, each of which has a stunning legend, and almost all the buildings have been granted the title of architectural monument.

The Market Square is joined by a small isthmus to Zamkova Hora Square, on which stands a monument to the first outstanding Ukrainian scholar and philosopher, the local son Yurii Drohobych (Kotermak).

Zamkova Hora Square. The bell tower. The monument to Yurii Drohobych

The Roman Catholic Church of St Bartholomew, founded in 1392, and the defensive bell tower, erected in 1551, are historical monuments of national significance.

Connoisseurs of wooden sacred buildings must certainly see three churches, one of which is inscribed on the UNESCO list. The shrines are located not far from one another, and there is more about them in the previous post.

Solonyi Stavok Street, 23. The Church of St George. 15th-16th centuries.

At one of the oldest industrial enterprises of Ukraine, which has not interrupted its activity since the 13th century, salt is still evaporated from brine to this day, and the salt-boiling process can be seen at Solonyi Stavok Street, 27.

Solonyi Stavok Street, 27. The saltworks

From the Market Square, the heart of the city, streets spread out like streams, sleeves and rays — distinctive and cosy — along which one can wander for hours.

Kovalska Street, 1

Kovalska Street, 7

On Kovalska Street, with its shops and trading stalls, it will do the traveller no harm to rest for a couple of minutes on an original bench and study the city map for further circling around.

The fountain is a must-see location for a selfie.

Taras Shevchenko Square. The fountain

On Taras Shevchenko Square, by the monument to the Kobzar, the cyclists set off — those who had come to the season opening from various cities and towns.

We too shall ride along the marked routes and wherever the soul calls. The most interesting streets of Drohobych arose during the heyday of oil extraction and salt-boiling in these parts. They run almost parallel and are named after the national Ukrainian classics — Lesia Ukrainka, Ivan Franko, Taras Shevchenko. The Non Stop walk will take about two hours, and we shall begin our procession with the former Panska Street, on which stand refined palaces and villas.

Taras Shevchenko Street, 13

State institutions, administrative and commercial structures occupy the fashionable palazzos.

Taras Shevchenko Street, 21. The education department of the Drohobych city council

The owner of the mansion at Shevchenko Street, 23, before the entry of Russian troops in 1914, was an oil magnate. During the years of Polish rule the house was home to the burgomaster of Drohobych and the owner of the Truskavets resort, Raymond Jarosz. Now biology students study in the elite mansion.

Taras Shevchenko Street, 23. The Jarosz Villa. The biology faculty of the Franko DDPU

The philologists have occupied the premises of the former gymnasium of 1843, which was completed by Ivan Franko, Vasyl Stefanyk and Les Martovych. On the facade of the alma mater, bas-relief memorial signs have been installed to these luminaries of Ukrainian literature.

Taras Shevchenko Street, 24. The philology faculty of the Franko DDPU. The memorial sign to I. Ya. Franko

Taras Shevchenko Street, 24. The philology faculty of the Franko DDPU. The memorial sign to Martovych and Stefanyk

The military enlistment office has been housed in a two-storey chamber building of the early 20th century.

Taras Shevchenko Street, 25. The military enlistment office

The library named after V. M. Chornovil occupies a former Jewish building with a synagogue. The monument to the public figure and politician was erected in 2009.

Taras Shevchenko Street, 27. The V. M. Chornovil library and the monument to Chornovil

In the most elegant mansion, built in the Baroque style, the Palace of Arts and the "Drohobychchyna" museum have been opened.

The cobbled Sich Riflemen Street connects with three streets named after the Awakeners of the national and cultural revival.

Drohobych. Sich Riflemen Street, 2

The monument to the Fighters for Freedom in Ukraine on the Square of Five Corners

Sich Riflemen Street. The view to the south

Here we note several beautiful buildings and especially the picture gallery, which displays canvases, sculptures and works of sacred art beginning from the 16th century.

Sich Riflemen Street, 22. The medical department

Sich Riflemen Street, 18. The picture gallery

Ivan Franko Street is the longest of the three I chose for my walk.

Ivan Franko Street, 3. 1900. An architectural monument

It is commendable when the authenticity and architectural decoration of buildings have not been spoilt by Euro-renovations.

Drohobych. Ivan Franko Street. Residential buildings

The research laboratory of the pedagogical university occupies a mansion with two towers.

Future teachers master the skills of their profession in a magnificent palace built in 1903, which used to house the county administration. The Galician Statue of Liberty and other finely carved sculptures crown the building of the pedagogical lyceum at Ivan Franko Street, 36.

Drohobych has more than a dozen museums of various themes. In the building of the former Drohobych county council, erected in 1894, the department of nature and history of the local history museum is housed. Rich collections of archaeological and ethnographic materials have been gathered — documents, photographs, craftsmen's wares, tools, old printed books, porcelain and faience tableware. The keepers of the museum's treasures await their visitors at Ivan Franko Street, 32.

Ivan Franko Street, 32. The Museum of Natural History and Culture

The music and pedagogy faculty occupies house No. 11 on the same street.

On the facade of the main building of the pedagogical university, busts of Yurii Drohobych, Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko and Markiian Shashkevych have been installed.

Ivan Franko Street, 24. The Franko DDPU. The bust of Markiian Shashkevych

Ivan Franko Street, 24. The Franko DDPU. The bust of Yurii Drohobych

A monument to the Kamenyar has been erected beside the House of Culture.

Ivan Franko Street. The Palace of Culture. The monument to I. Ya. Franko

Beside the mansion built in 1900 there was the most exquisite garden in the city. Among the rare plants that have survived, one can admire a magnificent magnolia and other exotics. Until 1939 this villa belonged to a local doctor.

An evening school is in the two-storey house No. 14, and a kindergarten in No. 12.

Ivan Franko Street, 14. The evening school

Ivan Franko Street, 12. The kindergarten

The transition to Lesia Ukrainka Street is by a very short little street named after the Ukrainian composer Ostap Nyzhankivsky.

Ostap Nyzhankivsky Street, 5

The court building is decorated with bas-relief lions and a carved wooden balcony.

Lesia Ukrainka Street, 32. The Drohobych district court

According to the residents of the five-apartment house at Lesia Ukrainka Street, 38, after the Second World War the half-timbered mansion was occupied by Saburov, the head of the NKVD directorate of the former Drohobych oblast, who organised special operations against the city's inhabitants.

Lesia Ukrainka Street, 38. The Halpern Villa

In the courtyard is the most famous gazebo of Drohobych. Cruciform in plan and crowned with a small ridge turret, the wooden pavilion has lost its mosaic and other decorative elements.

Lesia Ukrainka Street, 38. The wooden gazebo

A labour-intensive example of decorative and applied art has adorned the facade of Music School No. 2, but the canopy over the entrance has fitted awkwardly into the mosaic panel.

Lesia Ukrainka Street, 41. Music School No. 1. The mosaic panel

A few more streets deserve attention, where pompous buildings and memorable places have survived. On Adam Mickiewicz Street, well-known personalities lived in the elite houses.

The monument to Adam Mickiewicz near the street of the same name

Adam Mickiewicz Street, 9

Adam Mickiewicz Street, 7

Adam Mickiewicz Street, 1

In building No. 11, in the 1920s, a private gymnasium was located.

Adam Mickiewicz Street, 11

In house No. 3, with its wooden veranda, lived the master of artistic photography Schoenhelbach, from whom the writer Bruno Schulz took glass negatives and made graphic drawings with a needle. A sad fate awaited these two talented artists, like many of the Jews of Drohobych, during the Nazi occupation.

Adam Mickiewicz Street, 3

Mickiewicz Street leads out to Yurii Drohobych Street, where Bruno Schulz lived in house No. 12. The writer was killed by a fascist's bullet in his native city.

Adam Mickiewicz Street, 12. The house of Bruno Schulz

Along Zhupna and Honcharska Streets, where buildings with the status of architectural monument have survived from the mid-19th century, we shall return to the Market Square.

Zhupna Street, 4. 1903. An architectural monument

Zhupna Street, 3 — the financial purpose of this building has not changed over 100 years.

Zhupna Street, 3. The 1870s. An architectural monument

Honcharska Street, 1 — the building is decorated with an ornament of sunflowers.

Honcharska Street, 1. 1904. An architectural monument

During today's journey I saw several teaching buildings of the Drohobych Pedagogical University, located in stylish houses. It would be unfair not to mention that the engineering and pedagogy faculty is housed in a historic building of 1876 at Stryiska Street, 3. In the period 1939-1953 this fine house held an NKVD prison, in which the Bolshevik authorities killed about 3,000 Drohobych residents.

Stryiska Street, 3. 1876. An architectural monument. The Franko DDPU

Since the talk has turned to educational institutions, I would like to show a photo of the college of oil and gas. The city owes its development to the deposits of hydrocarbons, and to extract them the industry needed a growing number of specialists. On Mykhailo Hrushevsky Street, 57, since 1945 this institution has trained personnel for the oil and gas extraction industry.

Mykhailo Hrushevsky Street, 57. The college of oil and gas. The chapel. The drilling rig

All tourist information can be obtained at the tourist information centre at Market Square, 1 (the Town Hall building) and by telephone: +380 97 78 66 009.

You can have lunch or a coffee in the numerous cafes, restaurants, knaipas and coffee houses.

Mykola Lysenko Street, 7

You can get to Drohobych from Lviv by bus No. 292 every 30 minutes, and by suburban train Lviv-Truskavets 4 times a day, Stryi-Sambir 3 times a day.

The railway station

Out-of-town visitors can stop for the night at the "Tustan" hotel, whose facade is decorated with a mural depicting a girl in national dress and cranes symbolising love for the native land.

Taras Shevchenko Square, 1. The "Tustan" Hotel