Vul. Yeroshenka – Kortumova Hora Park

Of Lviv’s late 18th-century parks and gardens of historical note, the broad, leafy, northwestern heights of Kortumova Hora, which once lay outside the city limits, are worthy of special attention. The topographical designations Kortumova Hora and Kortumivka are taken from the surname of the gubernatorial advisor, director of the Galician Saltworks, administrator of the University, Masonic Lodge member, and author of the 1790 monograph “Magna Charta von Galizien”, Ernst von Kortum, who also owned property at the site. Kortum maintained the mortuary of his wife Freiderika in the private park and the grange located there came to be known as Freiderikhivka.

Franciszek Jaworski describes Kortumivka as “truly a well-kept, lordly estate”. A quotation from Horace engraved on the pediment greeted guests of the gable-roofed manor, and from there, “brick outbuildings surrounded (the Manor), with splendid orchards fanning up and out before it, and spots for garden walks where there was a small grape arbor, a hothouse and gardener’s shed. Though there was no need for a gardener as the “Hofrat” (the governor’s high counselor), engaged the garden arts with an authentic zeal, working the soil with his own hands and, by the time of his death, he had planted 2,233 fruit trees there. In addition, the grange held dozens of half-hectare plots which were worked by peasants attached to the Manor. From the gazebo in the grove that topped the hill, the Counselor had an enchanting view of the city, and also of the tomb of his wife, cocooned in his melancholy by pine, birch, and weeping willow” (Jaworski, 1911, 330). Indeed, the Kortumivka plantation, with its ‘sentimental’ bearing, stood as a monument to horticultural trends of the Romantic era.

Following the death of von Kortum in 1811, the territory came into the possession of the military, which maintained a shooting range at Kortumivka (Jaworski, 1911, 330). During the 19th century, the gradually expanding grounds of the Yanivskyi Cemetery were established near the park’s southern boundary.

A railway line was laid in during the 1860s which looped around Kortumivka and cut through the outlying village of Klepariv, forever altering the bucolic setting and appearance of both hill and village. Near the close of the century a large construction ceramic works was established on the Friderikhivka plot of land by Ivan Levynskyi and Aleksander Domaszewicz (Zhuk, 2010, 82-83). Despite the changes, “Kortum’s Grove” continued to serve the community as a popular spot for picnickers and those out for a stroll. For a time a horticultural research institute was located here, and it is reported that the park was maintained in good condition until the beginning of the 20th century.

The Kortumova Hora Park was razed during the Second World War when occupying German forces converted the area into the Yaniv Concentration Camp. Part of this area currently serves as a penitentiary grounds. Currently the upper terrace of Kortumova Hora is used as a sport firing range. On its lower reaches various workshops and garages are nestled into the hill. The territory of this historical park is in a dilapidated state as of this writing, though its singular landscaping continues to intrigue city residents.