Mickiewicz Square
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The Mickiewicz Square ( uk, Площа Міцкевича, trans. ''Ploshcha Mitskevycha'') is one of the main squares in the city of
Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...
,
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
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Location and history

The square, lying between Lviv's old town and the southern part of midtown, was planned and created in the first half of 19th century, after the demolition of the old town's defensive walls in the late 18th century. Primarily, from 1843 it was known as ''Ferdinand Square'' (german: Ferdinandplatz, pl, Plac Ferdynanda), in honour of the Austrian governor of Galicia, Ferdinand Habsburg-d'Este. In 1862 it was renamed ''St Mary's Square'' ( pl, Plac Mariacki) when a monument dedicated to her was erected in the area. Today it bears the name of
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
poet Adam Mickiewicz, whose monument was placed in the central part of the square in 1904. Lviv prior to
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
was inhabited mostly by Poles and Jews, and belonged to pre-war Poland. In 1939, the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in the course of the
Invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
annexed the city. As the new occupant administration perceived St Mary to be a rather inappropriate patron for a square in the centre of a Soviet city, the square underwent peculiar "secularisation" and was renamed ''Mickiewicz Square'' ( pl, Plac Mickiewicza, russian: Площадь Мицкевича). Although the majority of Polish Lvivians were expelled after the second and permanent Soviet annexation in 1945 and the city was repopulated with Ukrainian and Russian settlers, the monument wasn't demolished during the Soviet era – instead it was kept; as well as the name of the square.


Adam Mickiewicz Column

The monument composes of a 21-metre-high column made of Italian granite, and a 3-metre-high statue of Mickiewicz being granted his poet's
lyre The lyre () is a stringed musical instrument that is classified by Hornbostel–Sachs as a member of the lute-family of instruments. In organology, a lyre is considered a yoke lute, since it is a lute in which the strings are attached to a yoke ...
by the genius of poetry, with some additional elements including the golden torch of ''Inspiration'' on the top of the column. Standing in the central part of the square, it was erected in 1904, with the official opening ceremony held on October 30. It was designed and carved by Polish sculptor
Antoni Popiel Antoni Popiel (13 June 1865, in Szczakowa, Galicia (now Jaworzno) – 7 July 1910, in Velykyi Liubin near Lviv) was a Polish sculptor. Life He studied at the School of Fine Arts, Kraków from 1882 to 1884, with Izydor Jabłoński, Władys ...
, who won the contest for the design in 1898. The rear of the column base contains the
coat-of-arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its w ...
of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...
.


Other Square Features

* Monument to St Mary with adjacent fountain. The figure of St Mary, on the order of countess Seweryna Badeni, was sculpted in white, Trembovlian marble by Johann Nepomuk Hautmann from
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
in 1859, and brought to Lviv the same year. In 1904, when the monument of Mickiewicz was erected, the figure was moved north from the centre of the square and remodelled according to a competition won project by Michał Łużecki. In Soviet times, the figure was removed from the top of the fountain and placed in the Boim Chapel (since moved to St Andrew's Church). The fountain was topped with a vase instead. The original composition, including a copy of the St Mary figure, was reconstructed in 1997. * Sprecher's tenement house. The six story high edifice with mansard roof, was ordered by Jonas and Gizela Sprecher and constructed between 1914 and 1922, according to a design by Ferdynand Kassler from Michał Ulam's architectural bureau. The architecture contains a mixture of neoclassical and early modernist features. Due to its height and size it was dubbed Lviv's first "skyscraper". * Hotel George. Constructed as a luxury hotel in 1900 according to a design by Viennese architects
Ferdinand Fellner Ferdinand Fellner (19 April 1847 – 22 March 1916) was an Austrian architect. Biography Fellner joined his ailing father's architecture firm at the age of nineteen. After his death he founded the architecture studio Fellner & Helmer together w ...
& Hermann Helmer with sculptural decoration by
Leonard Marconi Leonard Marconi (Warsaw, 6 October 1835 – 1 April 1899, Lviv) was a Polish and Austro-Hungarian architect and sculptor. He was active chiefly at Warsaw, then in Galicia, notably at Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine). Life Leonard Marconi was born on 6 ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mickiewicz Square Buildings and structures in Lviv Squares in Lviv Tourist attractions in Lviv Adam Mickiewicz