National Museum

Lviv


Residing in one of Lviv's grandest 19th-century palaces, this sometimes confusing museum (too many doors, ticket rippers, sections, prescribed routes) has one of the Slavic world's best collection of religious icons, most hailing from western Ukraine and eastern Poland. The earliest examples date from the 12th century and the famous Volyn School is well represented. A separate section deals with Ukrainian art of the 18th to 20th centuries including a few works by Taras Shevchenko, whose death mask can also be found here.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Lviv attractions

1. Transfiguration Church

0.09 MILES

The tall copper-domed church just west of the Armenian Cathedral is the late-17th-century, newly renovated Transfiguration Church, the first church in the…

2. Prospekt Svobody

0.1 MILES

In summer the broad pavement in the middle of this wide prospekt is the town's main hang-out and a hub of Lviv life, where homegrown tourists pose for…

3. Armenian Cathedral

0.1 MILES

One church you should not miss is the elegant 1363 Armenian Cathedral with its ancient-feeling interior. The placid cathedral courtyard is a maze of…

4. Jesuit Church

0.12 MILES

Only reconsecrated in 2011, Lviv's impressive Jesuit church (full name – Garrison Church of Sts Peter and Paul) was used as a book repository during the…

5. Statue of Taras Shevchenko

0.14 MILES

An enormous statue of Taras Shevchenko, Ukraine's greatest nationalist writer, rises up in the middle of pr Svobody. It was a gift to the people of Lviv…

6. Museum of Ethnography, Arts & Crafts

0.15 MILES

This underfunded, chaotically curated museum has a few interesting pieces of furniture, Czech glass, art nouveau posters (Mucha, Lautrec) and various 19th…

7. St Mary of the Snows Church

0.17 MILES

This seldom-visited church was founded by the German community in the 13th century as a Catholic cathedral but was given a neo-Romanesque makeover in the…

8. Ploshcha Rynok

0.17 MILES

Lviv was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1998, and this old market square lies at its heart. The square was progressively rebuilt after a major…