Zolota Street green space (formerly Teofil Wiśniowski Park)

 The thirty years preceding the First World War are recorded in the Lviv’s architectural log as a period of rapid territorial expansion, aggressive construction, and dynamic growth and development of Lviv’s park and garden ring. During those years the city administration pursued an ambitious schedule of plantings in the city – in the years between 1886 and 1888 alone, 60,000 trees were planted.

Lviv’s rapid modernization was also resulting in the loss of many small plots that marked the city’s ‘emerald cloak’ of green space. In particular, following the laying of the railroad line (1861) north and west of Vysoky Zamok, the city’s northwestern region was transformed into an industrial zone and an area of rapid real estate/construction development. Lost were any number of picturesque ‘garden spots’ which had beautified the area (known as the Zhovkivskyi neighborhood) through the mid-19^th century. This municipal initiative was aimed at spurring growth in the city’s network of parks and gardens, and especially in this northwestern sector. Thus it was that the ground was laid for a new park on a lot adjoining the start of Kleparivska Street, on a hill where criminals had been executed during the 18^th century.

Ivan Krypiakevych writes, “the north side of Janivska Street lies along high ground. There, from Kleparivska Street, at their start stands the so-called “Execution Hill” (mons supplicii), on which death sentences were regularly carried out since the 18^th century. Following 1768, the Haydamaky leaders were executed here. In 1847, the Polish rebels Teofil Wiśniowski and Jόzef Kapuściński were hanged here. A monument has been put up in their honor. The locals call the place Hytslivskyi Hill, because a city “hytsel” – dog catcher – once lived in the neighborhood”, (Krypiakevych, 1991, p131).

In 1895, in memory of Teofil Wiśniowski and Jόzef Kapuściński, an obelisk by sculptor Julian Markowski was erected on Execution Hill. It was at that time that the slopes of the hill were landscaped and a square laid in which was named Wiśniowski Park, “by merit of the Wiśniowski memorial and the planting which surrounds it” (Miasto Lwów, 1896, 349).

As of this writing, the green space on Execution Hill has lost its “city park” status, and is in need of upkeep and investment.