Vul. Khmelnytskoho, 124 – Jam Factory Art Center

Village Znesinnia (pol. Zniesienie) which was included into the Lviv boundaries in 1930, had been located directly next to the city customs post, the rogatka Żółkiewska, at the similarly-named street (since 1944, Khmelnytskoho Street). The road had been constructed in the 1770s and known as the Emperor's tract. It was an important element of infrastructure encouraging industrial development in the so-called Pidzamche area of Lviv and in Znesinnia. During the nineteenth century a number of enterprises were founded here which specialized in agricultural products' processing. The construction of the Lviv–Brody railroad including the Pidzamche train station which opened in 1869 gave another upsurge to the industrial specialization of these areas.

The Kroniks' Family Business

In 1850, Moses Kronik addressed Franciszka Laszkowska, the owner of the Znesinnia village, for a permission to develop a distillery on his private territory (CDIAL 166/1/1178). At that time, he had already been running a tavern there and so he was making a logical step in expanding his business. The permission entitled Kronik to produce and sell all kinds of alcohol except for beer and arak, obliging him to pay the village owner 150 florins per year.

In 1850, the Znesinnia land cadaster was made, it records the Kronik's land plot with the conscriptional number 105. Moses's children were involved into the alcohol business as well. In 1872, as it is stated on the label of a kosher liquor "Szabasowa", his grandson founded his own company "Józef Kronik" It produced mainly rum and rosolio. In 1877, Leib, Moses's son, established an enterprise producing brandy, alcohol and wines which later functioned under the name "Kronik i Mahler". For some time, both companies existed simultaneously functioning on the same site. The Kroniks lived right next to the production, and the tavern continued working.

The Kroniks' companies were situated in close vicinity to a number of other enterprises specializing in alcohol production in Znesinnia, the Baczewski alcohol factory, well-known in the entire Austrian-Hungarian empire, being the most famous among them. The business provided social promotion to its owners, e.g. Leib Kronik was chosen as a member of the jury to the Regional criminal court in Lviv in 1877. In 1913, Josef was chosen to it. Before 1901, Josef's business had extended its production capacities, he owned a distillery in Smarzów of Brodzki powiat, (now Smorzhiv village in Radekhivskyi rayon). In 1909, Josef was granted a title of an imperial and royal warrant of appointment (k.k. Hoflieferant), which, undoubtedly, was an indication of his success.

Address books from the late 1890s keep records of Josef Kronik's relocation from the distant Znesinnia to the Lviv city center. He lived near the Galician Diet for a few years, e.g. in an apartment on ul. Kraszewskiego, 1 (now Krushelnytskoi), later — on Akademicka, 26 (prosp. Shevchenka) and ul. Pańska, 17 (now vul. Franka). At the latter, he was registered together with his son Moritz (Pol. Maurycy), who had recently defended his PhD in chemistry at the Franz University (Lviv) in 1909 (DALO 26/15/726:456). His research work was related to the synthesis of vinegar which apparently had to be useful for the family business, which included vinegar production at the time. Moritz became a partner in 1912 and thus the company was renamed into "Kronik and Son" (Kronik i syn).

The Kroniks participated actively in the life of the Znesinnia Jewish community. In 1864, Moses Kronik gave half of his land plot as well as half of his income to the Jewish hospital (CDIAL 166/1/1180:188). In 1866, he donated to the Central Jewish Patriotic Committee (Gazeta Lwowska, 1866, Nr. 17, s. 1). In 1878, the initiative group of Jewish residents in Znesinnia including Leib Kronik bought the neighboring land plot for the synagogue construction, the Kroniks being among its donors. Josef Kronik donated to support schoolchildren from the poor families of Znesinnia (Kurjer Lwowski, 1890, Nr. 355, s. 3) and also was a member of the "Ose Tov" charity association (Hebr. "do good") taking care of the Jewish cemetery in the village (CDIAL 701/2/1118:158). Even though the factory got damaged due to an arson attack by the Russian troops retreating from Lviv in 1915, Josef Kronik donated money to the Viennese Association of Saving Jewish Children of Galicia and Bukovina (Neue Freie Presse, 1917, Nr. 18988, s. 7). Such charitable and societal activities helped to establish the Jewish community in Znesinnia which strove to be independent from the Lviv city community and build their own infrastructure which would afford to pay less contributions and taxes (Гельстон, 2004).

Dr. Moritz Kronik did not limit himself to continuing his father's business. In the late 1918, he founded a cosmetic and pharmaceutical company "Kronik and Edels" (Dr. Kronik & Mr. Edels) in Vienna, in cooperation with the pharmacist Salomon Edels from Lviv (Amtsblatt für Wiener Zeitung 1919, Nr. 11, s. 32). In the following years, he lived mostly in Vienna, but returned to Lviv in 1926 because of his father's death. The obituary published in the local Tagblatt characterized the deceased as a "Jew of an old Lemberg style". Moritz thus gained full ownership of the company in Lviv. After that, his family was travelling between Lviv and Vienna, while the "Kronik and Son" company management was shared between him and his partner Szulim Wallach. Wallach was known for being on the council of the Jewish religious community in Lviv. He owned real estate in the very city center, on ul. Akademicka, 12 (Księga adresowa, 1935). When in Lviv, Moritz lived on the Rynok Square, in the Zipper House. During the period of 1926-1939, the enterprise produced spirits and traded wines, first imported from Hungary, and later from Palestine (Chwila, 1926, Nr. 2676, s. 3). It was the business of cosher spirits trade that continued developing, including Slivovitz (plum brandy) for the holiday of Pesach (Chwila, 1938, Nr. 6849, s. 10).

Dr. Kronik was a member of a charitable (and, probably, masonic) organization "The Free Sons of Israel" (American Jewish Yearbook, 1917, Vol. 19, s. 341), and in the interwar period, donated for the colonists to Palestine, which indicates his political views. He donated to the Jewish Academic House (dormitory of the Jan Kazimierz University) on the ul. Sw. Terezy, 28 in Lviv, now vul. Anhelovycha (Sprawozdanie roczne 1927, s. 35).

The Second World War put a tragic end to the Kronik dynasty. The enterprise was nationalized by the Soviet administration in 1939. In the documents dating back to 1941, it is mentioned as the Lviv Alcohol Factory No. 5 having 74 employees (DALO R-130/1/4). Except for the fact that it was listed in the Nazi catalogues among the "former Jewish properties" (DALO R-37/4/539:97), sources regarding the factory during the Nazi occupation of 1941-1944 have not been found yet. It is a known fact that the Lviv Jews were resettled to the ghetto in November-December 1941 (while the factory stayed outside its borders), most of them were killed there, at the killing site in the neighboring Lysynychi village or they were deported to the Belzec death camp. Some members of the Kronik family died in Warsaw, Theresienstadt, and Auschwitz. In 1942-1944, the Nazis destroyed the synagogue and Jewish cemetery in Znesinnia, making them vanish without a trace.

Jam Factory

After the war, when Lviv was part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, the enterprise buildings were used by the trust "Ukrholovvyno" (All-Ukrainian Vine Trust); imported wines from Moldova and Algeria were bottled here. Lviv telephone directory from 1949 indicates that this enterprise at vul. Khmelnytskoho, 124 was connected with the blending room of "Ukrholovvyno", located in the Pohulianka park in Lviv.

In the 1970s, the buildings were used as a vegetable processing unit of the Lviv regional office of the Department of Procurement, wholesale and retail trade in vegetables, potatoes and fruit of the USSR Ministry of Trade ("Plodoovochetorh"). Vegetable preserves, jams, honeys, and mushrooms were prepared here and sold nearby in a small shop. In comparison to the big plants and factories, which developed as part of the Soviet industrialization of Lviv and were especially numerous on Pidzamche, it appears tiny, employing only about 25 permanent workers, mostly female. Most of them commuted from nearby villages, and so the factory kept the image of a place of connection between the city and its rural agricultural surroundings. The factory's products were sold nevertheless in various places all over the USSR, in western and central Ukraine, Moscow, Far East, Belarus etc. It had larger factories among its customers, such as the famous Confectionary "Svitoch" (Havryliv, 2018; Trots, 2018). In the 1980s, the enterprise was technically updated with vacuum units for the jam and tomato paste production (Havryliv, 2018).

After 1991, a period of economy restructuring started. In 1998 the factory was reorganized into "Vitacons" LLC which continued to produce jams and vegetable preserves. In 2008, the production stopped on site, and the building was purchased by Oleksiy Kurylyshyn, a businessman and real estate developer in Lviv. He was interested in an adaptive reuse of the building as a hotel or similar commercial function, but the economic crisis of 2008 undermined those intentions. The owner gave permission to organize various cultural events here. The Week of Contemporary Art in Lviv, organized for several years in a row starting in 2008, the "Lviv Fashion Week", some theatrical performances, "Urban Exploration Fest" (see Прокопенко 2015; Jam Factory 2019) were among the most conspicuous events going on here.

Jam Factory Art Center

In 2015, historian and cultural promoter from Vienna Harald Binder bought the factory and initiated its revitalization through his organization "Harald Binder Cultural Enterprises" (HBCE). An international architectural competition followed in 2015, in which Stefan Rindler Architectural Bureau from Vienna was selected as winner. Thus the long process of consolidation of the land plots, getting permissions, and adaptation of the Austrian project to the Ukrainian laws and regulations in partnership with the local "AVR Development" bureau, started. In the meantime, the team of the project, led by Bozhena Pelenska (Zakaliuzhna), is working on institution-building, with grant program, educational lecture series, exhibitions, and art fellowship residences, functioning in the temporary locations nearby (Binder, 2019; Zakaliuzhna, 2019; Kovalchuk, 2019; Chaplinskyi, 2019).

In October 2019, the implementation of the revitalization project started, directed by Herbert Pasterk. It includes restoration and adaptation of the two buildings listed as monuments of local significance, as well as construction of new additional premises, to produce and host theatre plays and performances, exhibitions, workshops and other events, also for offices, restaurant, and open public space. The complete renovation and building of the complex is planned for 2022.