Lviv Legacy

By Walter Kish

It is not often that I get to meet someone with real passion for his work.  For many of us, our jobs are primarily a means of putting bread on the table and paying the rent.  We might even enjoy our daily occupation and get a certain amount of self-satisfaction out of what we do, but few of us can claim to be truly consumed and passionately engaged with our selected profession.

I met such a person in Lviv several weeks ago.  His name is Andriy Salyuk, and he is engaged in a commendable campaign to preserve Lviv’s unique and priceless architectural heritage.  He is the head of what is formally called “The Charitable Foundation for the Preservation of the Historical Architectural Legacy of the City of Lviv”, more commonly shortened to the “Lviv Foundation”. 

Those of us who have had the pleasure of visiting Lviv will no doubt testify to the vast and impressive array of historical architecture that spans the eight centuries of its recorded existence.  Whereas much of Ukraine and its cities were destroyed during the wars and revolutions of the Twentieth Century, Lviv almost miraculously managed to preserve most of its old city core.  The centre of the city with its cobble-stoned streets is a veritable treasure trove of Baroque, Gothic, and Renaissance churches, monasteries, palaces, mansions, military structures and other buildings.  I have visited many of the old capitals of Europe, including Prague, Krakow, Budapest, Vienna and several others, and few of even these can claim to have the variety and breadth of historic buildings that Lviv possesses.  This fact was recognized in 1998 when Lviv was named by the UN as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Unfortunately the vast majority of these old structures are in a sad state of repair and in desperate need of restoration and preservation.  Stone, brick and marble are deteriorating with age and the insidious erosion caused by increased air pollution.  Careless redevelopment and renovation are destroying centuries old ornamentation and decorative works of art.  A serious lack of trained and skilled restoration artisans is causing countless historical artifacts to be irreparably harmed or destroyed.

It pains Andriy Salyuk to see what is happening to his beloved old Lviv and he is passionately committed to ensuring that more of it does not disappear or crumble into history.  It is a sad fact that the Ukrainian government has done little since independence to ensure the preservation of this unique city.  Some of this is likely due to ignorance about the vast potential of Lviv as a major tourist attraction.  As well, the Russo-centric and Donbass dominated political authorities in Kyiv have little inclination to make investments a priority in the strongly nationalistic Western Ukraine. Whatever the case, very little tangible support has come from government authorities towards making Lviv another Prague or Krakow.

Since April 2000, when the Foundation was first organized, Andriy has been raising funds and mobilizing awareness amongst the citizens of Lviv towards preserving and restoring their architectural and cultural treasures.  Due to limited funding, many of their efforts have been modest: repairing statues, sculptures, and gargoyles; restoring icons; renovating facades, entranceways and exterior building ornamentation and; advising building renovators on how to best preserve interior decorations, old frescoes and woodwork. 

Recently, they have begun undertaking more ambitious projects, one of the primary ones being the restoration of the Boyim Chapel, a truly unique architectural gem that dates back to 1601.  Restoring this remarkable structure with its incomparable sculptures and interior paintings will require hundreds of thousands of dollars.  As difficult as the challenge of raising such sums may seem, Andriy is undaunted and continues to plug away at what has become a personal crusade.

What is probably more remarkable, is that Andriy is not some elderly, academic, grey-haired professor of history or architecture, but a young dynamic former economist in his mid-thirties.  His knowledge and expertise has been self-taught over the past several years, and he is now an acknowledged leading expert in the field of restoration.

Anyone wanting more information or wanting to assist the “Lviv Foundation” can contact Andriy by e-mail at: foundation@mis.lviv.ua, or by phone at (0322) 975 852.