The winged figure
A golden palm.
Maksym Kozlenko — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Haidamac — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Salvatore Babones — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Maksym Kozlenko — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Michał Bulsa — CC BY-SA 4.0
Lviv Opera is the opera and ballet house in central Lviv, in western Ukraine, standing at the end of tree-lined Freedom Avenue inside the World Heritage old town. It is one of the city's finest and best-known buildings. The Polish architect Zygmunt Gorgolewski designed it, and it was built between 1897 and 1900, when Lviv was the capital of Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It stands on former marshland over the Poltva River, which now runs buried under the city. The house is named today after the opera singer Solomiya Krushelnytska. You see a pale stone front with columns, arches and large windows, crowned by a winged figure holding a golden palm, with green bronze figures on either side. A fountain and a wide square lie before it, the avenue runs off with its trees and benches towards the old town, and the front is lit at night. It is about half a kilometre from Market Square in a straight line. Seeing the building from outside is free, and performances and tours have tickets. The UK Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel to the Lviv region, and opening can change at short notice, so read the current advice before you plan.
A golden palm.
Columns and arches.
Trees and benches.
Freedom Avenue, central Lviv, Ukraine
The Polish architect Zygmunt Gorgolewski.
Yes, the UK Foreign Office advises against all but essential travel to the Lviv region.
