Pohulianka park

Lviv’s wooded Pohulianka Park has a long and rich history. In the 17^th century the territory the park currently occupies was owned by Lviv burgomaster (mayor) Jan Attelmajer. For the insignificant sum of 6 zloty per year, he leased out the land which reached nearly to Snopkova and Vynnykiv, settling tenant farm workers on the land and establishing the “Attelmajer Apiary”. Allelmajer’s son-in-law - Maciej Kuczankowicz – inherited the land from the mayor. In 1672 the territory was razed by Turkish forces. In the mid-18^th century a subsequent owner - Jan Złotorowicz – managed to acquire the neighboring property as well. Following his death, the land and its attachments were divided between the Atanasiewicz and Dobrucki families. In 1789, appellate court counselor Krzysztof Deyma bought the lower section of the property from the Dobruckis; this section comprises the current Pohulianka Park. In 1799, Alojzy Gintowt Dziewiątkowski purchased the land from the Deyma family for 18,000 zloty, (Jaworski, 1911, pp 289-290).

20,000 zloty was the cost when well-known Lviv attorney Franciszek Węgliński later purchased the land. In the words of Ivan Krypiakevych, “Węgliński was a talented man, jovial, friendly, as well as rich, and gathered a sizeable entourage around himself of writers and artists, and spent many a good occasion with them on his Pohulianka property”, (Krypiakevych, 1991, p111). Indeed, it was during this “Węgliński Period” that the territory received the “Pohulianka” designation, or alternatively, “Węgliński’s Woods”. In 1821, restaurateur Johann Diestl bought the land from the Węgliński heirs for the sum of 5,060 Dutch Ducats and proceeded to establish his beer garden here. Adam Krajewski reports of this phenomenon that “the custom of the garden restaurant came here from the west with the German village constables…hardly half-a-century had passed and this custom, and so many other German practices, fit in so well here, like mushrooms after a rain, turning this place more or less distant from the city center into a very sociable location…” (Krajewski, 1909, p52).

Ivan Krypiakevych tells a story taken from the accounts of historian Franciszek Jaworski which paints a vivid picture of Pohulianka during the time of Johann Diestl: “in 1825, a traveler described his time at Pohulianka by telling that ‘there was such a ruckus in the restaurant, a big company of beer drinkers. Elegant locals, dressed up in their finery, the real “high and mighty”; in hats and tails and fringed pants, they looked like harlequins from the circus.’ Our traveler strolled about with the company along steep grove paths, observed a bubbling spring and went on: ‘we forced our way through the thick growth to the top of the hill and the admirable trees which stand there to rule over Pohulianka. Such divine scenery was revealed before our eyes. All around us high hills with valleys in between, covered with trees with the barely-visible steeple of a little chapel poking through. Pristine silence commanded the space, interrupted only by the croak of a toad to break the hush. In this place at the top of the hill, carpeted in forest moss, the capital was forgotten, as were our obligations, and with bursting hearts, yet silently, for there were no words to describe it, we looked now to each other, now to the tree branches over us trembling as if unwillingly in the gentle breeze. We took for ourselves some of the fair flower that grows in that pleasing spot, and grieving, turned to depart from that place where nature’s charm smiles on us from every leaf, abides in every blossom, there where our minds are as untroubled by all that is base and are as calm as the untroubled waters of the nearby pond…” (Krypiakevych, 1991, p111-112).

In 1848, the territory passed again into new ownership, the Diestl heirs selling the parcel to JohannKlein for 15,500 guilders. Klein, a brewer, tore down the old construction there, partly drained the pond and built his brewery there in its place. The main means of attraction of the townfolk to the ‘new’ Pohulianka became Klein Beer, which was considered to be Lviv’s best. The beer went down well with the featured dish at Klein’s park restaurant – pasties and roast chicken – hailed throughout the town. In the park one could also sample ice cream made fresh at the Maison sweetshop summer pavilion.

With the appearance later of small industry and real estate development in the area, Pohulianka began to lose some of its charm as a recreation area. During the First World War much of its beech forest was harvested for firewood, park paths were overgrown, and the area went to seed. Nonetheless, with time the area would begin to enjoy a new era of popularity.

Pohulianka Public Park was created in 1940. When the work began to clear the territory to be used as a park, a small pond was revealed near the central park lane. During the World War II German occupation work on the park was halted, only to resume after the war. In 1962 the design for the Pohulianka forested park was drawn up and subsequently carried out.