Vul. Mechnikova – Lychakivskyi (Lychakiv) cemetery

Lychakivsky cemetery is the oldest out-of-town cemetery of Lviv that has been preserved till our days. Its location was generally known as “the sands” (pisky). The first concise records of this cemetery date back to approximately 1567 when plague victims were buried there. Nevertheless, the oldest preserved monuments are dated to the late eighteenth century.

Officially, Lychakivsky cemetery was opened in the end of 1786 after cemeteries situated near churches had been abolished under the Emperor’s decrees. At that time it was located outside the town and was meant for those who lived in the town’s central part and in the suburb named Lychakiv. Chiefly, rich Lviv citizens were buried there while the poor were buried in Stryisky cemetery and later in that of Yaniv.

Lychakivsky cemetery occupied much less territory initially than it does today. In the first years of its official existence it was situated on the top of the hill where a wooden pavilion stood in the eighteenth century (it still existed in the early twentieth century). The cemetery occupied then the territory of current fields 7, 9, 10, 14, where several ancient gravestones still can be seen today.

Due to its location some distance away from the regular town housing, the territory of Lychakivsky cemetery could be expanded. In 1804 and 1808 some adjoining plots were purchased to enlarge this territory. The cemetery was not taken care of properly at the outset. However, during the next expansion in 1856 Karl Bauer, a university botanist, was invited to put it in order; in cooperation with Tytus Tchórzewski, the cemetery manager, he arranged the territory, laid out alleys and paths and made the cemetery territory look like a park.

As for today, Lychakivsky cemetery is one of the best known necropolises in Europe. According to the resolution adopted by the Lviv City Council on 10 July 1990, the territory of Lychakivsky cemetery was declared a historical and cultural reserve of local significance. In 1991 the military graveyard of Pahorb Slavy (“The Hill of Glory”) was joined to it.
Lychakivsky cemetery is the place of burial of a great number of prominent persons. In field 45, located in the north-eastern part of the cemetery, Mykola Shrah (d. 1970) is buried, who was the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Central Council (Centralna Rada) and a professor of Lviv Polytechnic; Olena Stepanivna (d. 1963), a khorunzha (junior officer) of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen and Ukrainian Galician Army, a historian and writer, is buried in field 64; f. Avrelian Andrukhovych (d. 1942), f. R. Lukan (d. 1943) and f. T. Kostruba (d. 1943), who all were historians of the Church, are buried nearby. The only grave, which has remained from the military cemetery of the Austro-Hungarian army which was destroyed, is located in field 82. Volodymyr Hrebeniak (d. 1915), an archaeologist, anthropologist, and actual member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, is buried there. In the north-western part of the cemetery the following persons are buried: Stepan Gzhytsky (d. 1967), a biochemist, Myron Zarytsky (d. 1961), a mathematician, Oleksa Novakivsky (d. 1935), a painter, and Volodymyr Shukhevych (d. 1915), an ethnographer, in field 59; Vasyl Lukych (Levytsky) (d. 1938), a writer, and Illia Kokorudz (d. 1933), the academic gymnasium headmaster, in field 60a. Nearby, in field 61, Stefania Gebus-Baranetska (d. 1985), a painter, is buried.

To the left of the main entrance, field 1 is situated, which has been considered a pantheon of distinguished Lviv citizens since the late nineteenth century. Here, in the vault of the Svachynsky family, the grave of Ivan Franko (d. 1916) was initially located; five years later the coffin with his remains was taken to a separate grave where a monument was constructed in 1933. Ukrainian writers Andriy Voloshchak (d. 1973), Volodymyr Gzhytsky (d. 1973), Vasyl Pachovsky (d. 1942), Hryhoriy Tiutiunnyk (d. 1961), Petro Karmansky (d. 1956), Petro Kozlaniuk (d. 1965), Petro Inhulsky (d. 1976), Mykhailo Yatskiv (d. 1961), Stepan-Yuriy Masliak (d. 1960), painters Ivan Trush (d. 1911), Osyp Kurylas (d. 1951), V. Savyn (d. 1971), sculptor Ivan Severa (d. 1971), public figures and politicians Omelian Ohonovsky (d. 1894), O. Markov (d. 1909), Roman Sushko (d. 1944), Olha Tsipanovska (d. 1941), Mykola Holubets (d. 1942), academician Mykhailo Vozniak (d. 1954), professor Stepan Shchurat (d. 1990), architects Ivan Bahensky (d. 1967), Adam Kuryllo (d. 1980), Henrikh Shvanetsky-Vinetsky (d. 1965) are buried in field 1. The graves of historian Ivan Krypiakevych (d. 1967) and writer Iryna Vilde (d. 1982) are situated in adjoining field 59.
Lower from the monument of Juliusz Ordon, there are the graves of Antoniy Dursky (d. 1908), the youth sport and educational organization Sokil founder; Stanisław Szczepanowski (d. 1900), a pioneer of oil industry in Galicia; Lviv presidents Michał Michalski (d. 1907), Tadeusz Rutowski (d. 1918) and Godzimir Małachowski (d. 1908). Graves of some prominent figures of Polish culture, art and public life are situated nearby. Polish writer Maria Konopnicka (d. 1910) and Gabrieła Zapolska (d. 1921), poets Władysław Bełza (d. 1913) and Seweryn Goszczyński (d. 1876), architect Zygmunt Gorgolewski (d. 1903), historian O. Czołowski (d. 1944), professor of Lviv Polytechnic Karol Skibiński (d. 1922) and a lot of others are buried there.

Yaroslav Halan (d. 1949), a writer and essayist, and some other figures of the Soviet times, namely Kuzma Pelekhaty (d. 1952), Semen Stefanyk (d. 1981), Mykola Hnydiuk (d. 1976), B. Dudykevych (d. 1972), Yuriy Melnychuk (d. 1963), rector of Lviv Polytechnic and Lviv Ivan Franko State University Mykola Maksymovych (d. 1981) and his wife Maria Kikh (d. 1979), orthopaedist I. Zaichenko (d. 1964), generals Vasyl Bisiarin (d. 1969) and Mykola Abashyn (d. 1969), as well as some others were buried in field 1 in the postwar period. Nearby, in field 3, there is the burial vault and graves of the Barvinsky family; in particular, Oleksandr Barvinsky (d. 1927), a prominent educator and literary man, historian, the Austrian parliament member, and his son, Vasyl Barvinsky (d. 1964), a well-known composer and GULAG prisoner, are buried there. To the right of the Barvinskys’ vault Yaroslav Kulachkivsky (d. 1919) is buried, who was the founder and director of the Mutual Commitments Society and of the Dnister bank. The grave of Ivan Verkhratsky (d. 1919), a prominent figure of Ukrainian culture, is located deeper in the field. Y. Oleksiy (d. 1934), an officer of the Ukrainian Galician Army, and composers Stanislav Liudkevych (d. 1979) and Anatoliy Kos-Anatolsky (d. 1983) are buried in the same field.

Not far from there, in field 4, there is the grave of Olha Khoruzhynska (d. 1941), Ivan Franko’s wife, as well as those of Solomia Krushelnytska, a well-known singer, and some members of her family, actors Vasyl Yaremenko (d. 1976) and Ivan Rubchak (d. 1952), musician T. Shukhevych (d. 1951), writer Ivan Beley (d. 1921), physicist Vasyl Miliyanchuk (d. 1958), painters Leopold Levytsky, Z. Masliak (d. 1984), Abel Maria Perier (d. 1881). The Neo-Gothic gravestones of Armenian archbishops Isaak Isakowicz (d. 1901) and Samuel Stefanowicz (d. 1858) are also located in this field.

Graves of some distinguished Ukrainians are located in field 5. Ivan Vahylevych (d. 1866), a member of the Ruthenian Triad; the Peoples’ Trade directors A. Nechay (d. 1916) and Vasyl Nahirny (d. 1921); Adam Kocko (d. 1910), a leader of Ukrainian student movement; the Prosvita Society chairman Ivan Kyveliuk (d. 1922); writers Mariyka Pidhirianka (d. 1968) and Kostiantyna Malytska (d. 1947); physician Marian Panchyshyn (d. 1943); academician Volodymyr Hnatiuk (d. 1926); historian Anton Petrushevych (d. 1913); painter Antin Manastyrsky (d. 1969), and a lot of others are buried there. Painter Artur Grottger and sculptor Julian Markowski (d. 1903), who both were prominent figures of Polish culture, are buried there as well. In the same field, there is the grave of Józef Torosewicz (d. 1869), a philanthropist who took care of Armenian orphans; the monument on his grave was made by sculptor Edmund Jaskulski. Not far from there, in field 11, Anton Schimser (d. 1838) and Johann Schimser (d. 1856) are buried.

In the fields with old graves, some prominent figures of Ukrainian culture are also buried. Among them, the following persons can be mentioned: Anton Pavetsky (d. 1889), the first Ukrainian newspaper Zoria Halytska editor (field 7); Yosyp Stadnyk (d. 1954), an actor, the Ruska Besida theatre director (field 8); O. Partytsky (d. 1895), an educator, the Zoria newspaper editor; f. chamberlain O. Pohoretsky (d. 1956), an active figure of the November Uprising of 1918 and the Austrian parliament member (field 27); Y. Medvetsky (d. 1918), a rector of Lviv Polytechnic (field 19); architect I. Bazarnyk (d. 1985) (field 7).
 In the southern part of the cemetery, along the main alley and in the adjoining fields (13, 21, 22, 51, 52, 53, 54, 69, 71, 72, 73, 76, 78) the graves of some distinguished Lviv citizens are located. Writers Osyp Turiansky (d. 1915), Antin Lototsky (d. 1949), Yulian Opilsky (d. 1937), Mykhailo Pavlyk (d. 1915), Mykhailo Rudnytsky (d. 1975), Milena Lysiak-Rudnytska (d. 1976); scholars and scientists Maksym Muzyka (d. 1972), Ilarion Svientsitsky (d. 1956), Vasyl Levytsky (d. 1956), Volodymyr Okhrymovych (d. 1931), Julian Tselevych (d. 1892), Filaret Kolessa (d. 1947); architects Ivan Levynsky (Jan Lewiński, d. 1956), Julian Zachariewicz (d. 1898); historians Denis Zubrytsky (d. 1862), Isydor Sharanevych (d. 1901), Myron Korduba (d. 1947); composers Anatol Vakhnianyn (d. 1908), Volodymyr Ivasiuk (d. 1979); painters Olena Kulchytska (d. 1941), Yaroslava Muzyka (d. 1974), Pavlo Kovzhun (d. 1939) are buried there.

The symbolic grave of writer Anton Krushelnytsky (d. 1937) and his children, who were killed by the Soviet regime in 1934-1937, is located in field 23. The memorial plaque of lawyer Volodymyr Starosolsky (d. 1942) and his wife Daria (d. 1941) can be seen in field 59. The Levytsky family vault, where Lev Levytsky (d. 1937), a lawyer and public figure, his daughter Halyna (d. 1949), a talented pianist, Ivan Krushelnytsky’s wife, and Yulian-Yuriy Dorosh (d. 1982), one of the first filmmakers of Galicia, are buried, is situated nearby.

Well-known sculptors Antoni Popiel (d. 1910) and Leonard Marconi (d. 1928) are buried in field 57; the graves of Franciszek Jaworski (d. 1914) and Bogdan Janusz (d. 1930), Lviv researchers, are located in field 13.