| Lychakiv Cemetery Ukrainian: Личаківський цвинтар Polish: Cmentarz Łyczakowski | |
| Map Type: | Ukraine Lviv Oblast |
| Established: | 1787 |
| Country: | Ukraine |
| Location: | Lviv |
| Coordinates: | 49.833°N 24.056°W |
| Type: | Public (restricted) |
| Size: | 40 ha |
| Graves: | more than 300,000 |
Lychakiv Cemetery (Ukrainian: Личаківський цвинтар|translit=Lychakivskyi tsvyntar; Polish: Cmentarz Łyczakowski we Lwowie), officially State History and Culture Museum-Preserve "Lychakiv Cemetery" (Ukrainian: Державний історико-культурний музей-заповідник «Лича́ківський цви́нтар»), is a historic cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine.
Since its creation in 1787 as Łyczakowski Cemetery, it has been the main necropolis of the city's (at the time named Lemberg) intelligentsia, middle and upper classes. Initially the cemetery was located on several hills in the borough of Lychakiv, following the imperial Austro-Hungarian (the city was located in Austria-Hungary at the time) edict ordering that all cemeteries be moved outside of the city limits. The original project was prepared by, the head of the Lviv University botanical garden.
In mid-1850s the cemetery was expanded significantly by Tytus Tchórzewski, who created the present network of alleys and round-abouts. It then became the main city cemetery, and soon most other cemeteries were closed. The two largest that remained were the Yanivskiy Cemetery (Polish: cmentarz Janowski), with many working class graves and the adjacent New Jewish Cemetery. Lychakivskiy Cemetery was used by all Christian sects in the city: in addition to Roman Catholics, it also included Eastern Rite Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox.
After World War II the city (at the time named Lwów) was annexed (from the Second Polish Republic) by the Soviet Union to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The majority of the surviving pre-war inhabitants of the city were expelled to the former German areas awarded to Poland after the Yalta Conference. This started a period of devastation of historical monuments located at the cemetery. Up to 1971 many of the sculptures were destroyed. However, in 1975 the cemetery was declared a historical monument and the degradation ended. Since the late 1980s, the cemetery has seen constant rebuilding and refurbishment and continues to be one of the principal tourist attractions of Lviv.
In late 2006 the city administration announced plans to transfer the tombs of Stepan Bandera, Yevhen Konovalets, Andriy Melnyk and other key leaders of Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) / Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) to a new area of the cemetery dedicated to the Ukrainian national liberation struggle.[1]
The Ukrainian National Army Memorial (Number 8 on the plan) is devoted to the Ukrainian National Army soldiers buried in the cemetery, including soldiers of the SS Division "Galicia". It was established due to the efforts of Ukrainian national-patriotic organizations and the Ukrainian emigrant veterans' movement. It was established with the special effort of, a division veteran, Ukrainian emigrant veterans' movement social activist and Plast (National Scout Organization of Ukraine) veteran who took an active part in the creation of memorials to the SS Division Galicia on the mountain and near the village of .[2]
On the north side of the Cemetery is situated Field of Mars (No. 1 on the plan), a war memorial built in 1974. This war memorial originally the graves of 3,800 Soviet soldiers who died in the battles against the Nazi occupiers during World War II) (named Great Patriotic War in Soviet ideology[3]) and against units of Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) (acting up to the mid-1950s). On the wall of the memorial was written a verse: Poetic writing in honor of the Soviet soldiers was eliminated at the direction of urban authorities in 1990s.[4]
The Field of Mars has been used as a burial site for Ukrainians soldiers who died during the Russo-Ukrainian War due to the lack of space at the Ukrainian National Army Memoral within the walls of the Lychakiv Cemetery, according to the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church's Military Chaplaincy Center. The Lviv Oblast Council announced on May 20, 2022 that it would hold an architectural contest in order to select the design for a war memorial at the site, which has been described as part of the decommunization process in Ukraine.[5] On August 19, 2022, Lviv authorities approved the exhumation of the remains of Soviet soldiers from the location.[6] The exhumation proceedings uncovered remains dating back to the First World War and belonging to soldiers of the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and Russian armies, which are set to be moved into a dedicated section within the planned memorial,[7] as well as World War II and post-War Soviet burials, which will be transferred to the Holoskiv Cemetery in Lviv.[8]
See main article: Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów. The Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów (Cemetery of Eaglets, Polish: Cmentarz Orląt Lwowskich) is a memorial and a burial place for the Poles and their allies who died in Lviv during the hostilities of the Polish-Ukrainian War (1918−1919) and Polish-Soviet War (1919−1921).
The complex is a part of the city's historic Lychakiv Cemetery. There are about 3000 graves in that part of the cemetery; some from the Lwów Eaglets young militia volunteers, after whom that part of the cemetery is named. It was one of the most famous necropolises of the interwar Poland. Lviv was a city in interwar Poland and at the time named Lwów.
In 1925, the ashes of one of the unknown defenders of Lwów were transferred to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw. After that was built the «Polish mausoleum» (Lwów Eaglets Memorial).
After World War II the cemetery of Lwów Eaglets was completely destroyed and turned into a truck depot and at one time Eaglets Cemetery was damaged with a bulldozer.[9]
Due to the history of complex Polish-Ukrainian relations, the Polish Eaglets Cemetery was neglected because the Ukrainian authorities did not want to rebuild this monument of young Polish soldiers defending the city in 1920s. Though in the late 1980s, workers of a Polish company which were working in Khmelnytskyi started to redecorate and rebuild the necropolis from its ruins (which was not always legal according to Ukrainian law). Although the Ukrainian authorities tried to stop the works several times, the Poles managed to renovate this important memorial of great Lvovians.
Since 1999 there is also a monument to the Sich Riflemen located just outside the Polish mausoleum.
Since the fall of communism, the cemetery had been rebuilt and refurbished. It was finally reopened on 24 June 2005.
In the back part of the cemetery (No. 6 on the plan) on a separate field indicated original steel crosses, located «1863 rebels' hill». Buried here are members Polish January Uprising of 1863, of which a member of the Polish Central National Committee Bronisław Szwarce, the famous zoologist Benedykt Dybowski, cornet Vitebsk land, resting under the central monument rebels, etc.
There are also numerous parts of the cemetery in which veterans of most wars of 19th and 20th centuries are buried, including the quarters of veterans of:
Since the city for centuries used to be a centre of Polish culture, there are numerous famous Poles buried there. Among them are:
Among the notable Ukrainians buried there are: