Stryjskyj park, Lviv

Returning to childhood is easy: start at Stryjskyj Park in Lviv

Many landmark events for the city are tied to Stryjskyj Park in Lviv. In 1894 the Land Exhibition (Vystava Krajova) opened here. In its honour one of the first electric trams in Europe began to run through the city. Stryjskyj Park was chosen as the customary site for the Eastern Fair, a trade fair where the most famous firms in the world at that time displayed their products: plenty of space and fresh air were very favourable for such events. The Eastern Fair was held here from 1922.

Famous writers and artists once came here. The Lviv historian Ilko Lemko describes those visits in his studies: «The famous Lviv writer Stanislaw Lem recalls how in the 1930s, at the Eastern Fair in Stryjskyj Park, he played with a yo-yo and tasted Maggi bouillon cubes. Here too, at the Eastern Fair, stood the transmission towers of the first Lviv radio station, which began to work in 1930. The most popular were the programmes of two Lviv humorists, Tonko and Shchepko, whose tradition is continued in Lviv radio broadcasting today by Dotsyk and Shlomo. Tonko and Shchepko were so popular that they and the imaginary heroes of their programmes figured in the texts of popular Lviv batyar songs. The «chief» of the Polish state himself, the dictator Piłsudski, gave his comments on the programmes of Tonko and Shchepko».

Now various art actions are held in Stryjskyj Park, for example creative reflections of social processes: sofas in the middle of an alley and swans made of plastic bottles (drawing the attention of Lviv residents to the problem of pollution of the environment), and many other events meant to remind us that the park is an asset of the city and we have no right to destroy it.

In autumn Stryjskyj Park dresses in colours that the most experienced artist could not convey. Winding paths over the hills, under the diffused light of lanterns, are like labyrinths: you simply walk forward through the fog without knowing where you will end up. In this lie romance and charm, refinement and distinctiveness. Feelings were born here, people found themselves and each other. It is a place marked by many couples who do not miss the chance to record moments of their happiness at the start of family life.

The park does not lose its popularity even in winter: children’s laughter rings out from all sides, and adults too can sink into that carefree season of childhood and play snowballs and go sledding with the little ones. Do not waste time being bored; go out into the fresh air! There life and time flow differently. Don’t believe it? Then welcome to Stryjskyj Park: it is better to come once than to read a hundred times!