Lviv. Snopkivskyi Park. For those who love space and quiet

Snopkivskyi Park in Lviv has the status of a monument of landscape gardening art and is intended for quiet rest and unhurried, contemplative walks.

 

Lviv. Snopkivskyi Park

There is plenty of room to wander here — this green friend covers 35.6 hectares. The park lies in the south-eastern part of the city between Lypova Aleia, Stusa, Krymska and Zelena streets. The woodland was established in 1959–1962 on the site of worked-out sand and clay quarries of brick factories, which is why the park's outline has no even contours. The spoil heaps and ravines were planted with trees and shrubs of 200 species. The plant cover densely blanketed the hilly surface, hid the wounds inflicted on nature by human activity, and has been producing oxygen for many decades now. The industrial zone gradually turned into a green treasure, whose stock is made up of maples, oaks, chestnuts, pines, spruces, birches and ashes.

 

Landscape of Snopkivskyi Forest Park

In spring, fruit trees adorn the city's green lungs with a delicate colour.

 

Snopkivskyi Park. Fruit trees in bloom

The grounds of Snopkivskyi Park are divided into 3 main alleys, each about 10 metres wide.

 

Alleys of Snopkivskyi Park

Snopkiv remembers how, after victorious football matches at the nearby Ukraina Stadium, all the park's paths would fill with streams of fans chanting joyful slogans, while the songs of Volodymyr Ivasiuk rang out beneath the canopy of the green island.

 

The green stock of Snopkivskyi Park

The park and the stadium shared the common name «Druzhba» (Friendship), as everything was called in Soviet times — from processed cheese to the military exercises of the Warsaw Pact countries. In the 1990s the park was renamed Snopkiv after the historical locality. And the stadium, on the suggestion of Karpaty football team coach Karl Mikloš, is called «Ukraina».

 

Lviv. Ukraina Stadium and the memorial sign to the players of the Karpaty football team

Lovers of the world's most popular game are not confined to large city stadiums and compete on the mini-football pitch created within the park.

 

Snopkivskyi Park. A football match

For a gastronomic pause during a stroll through the green oasis, a stylish restaurant and a barbecue yard welcome visitors.

 

Snopkivskyi Park. The restaurant

The park has no fairground attractions, loud music or dance floors, but the past is recalled by a ruined public convenience and a concrete slab that simply will not yield to reconstruction.

Snopkivskyi Park. Ruins

The northern side of the park adjoins the Benedykt Dybowski Arboretum with a wonderful collection of exotic and Red Book plants, as well as animal enclosures and an ethnographic exhibition.

Lviv. The Benedykt Dybowski Arboretum at the foot of Snopkivskyi Park

You can reach Snopkivskyi Park by buses No. 13, 37, 43 and trams No. 4, 8.