Market Square

The main square in Lviv is a phenomenon typical of medieval architecture. At that time, all the main squares of Central European cities looked like this. Market Square in Lviv replaced the Old Market and formed as the center of a Polish-German medieval city after the city was conquered by the Polish king Casimir the Great.

Market Square can be called a real open-air museum, because here the atmosphere of medieval Lviv has been preserved, and almost every building is a monument of architecture and oveyana with many mysteries.

In the heart of Market Square is a magistrate. Its history goes back to the reign of Vladimir Opilsky - at the end of the XIV century it was he who laid the first town hall of Lviv. Over the centuries, the building of the magistrate was repeatedly rebuilt, and in 1851 it acquired its final appearance, which has survived to this day.

Around the town hall there are four fountain wells decorated with figures of Greek gods: Neptune, Adonis, Amphitrite and Diana. They appeared on the square in 1793, and their creator is Hartman Witwer – an outstanding sculptor of the late XVIII – early XIX century.

In ancient times, on the western side of the Market Square there was another sculpture in the form of two figures, turning their backs to each other. One was a man with a sword, the other a woman with a scale. The sculpture marked the place of the pranger, next to which death sentences were enforced. Now this monument is kept in the Lviv Historical Museum.