Vul. Ruska, 20 – First Municipal Polyclinic (former Dnister Insurance Company Building)

The building is located in the central part of the city, on the corner of Ruska and Pidvalna streets. Previously, it was there that the “High wall” ran, which was the first line of the city fortifications built in the late 14^th c. Nearby, the so-called "bosatska" (“barefoot men’s”) wicket was located, named so due to the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites situated on the hill opposite it (now Vynnychenka street 22). From inside the town, residential houses stood closely adjacent to the wall; on one side, it was the former Jewish district situated between what is now Ruska, Arsenalna, Brativ Rohatyntsiv and Serbska streets, while on another side it was Ruska street where Ukrainian (Ruthenian) population of the town was concentrated.

After the Lviv fortifications were dismantled in the second half of the 18^th c.,  a townhouse was built there forming a new housing red line on Pidvalna street. This house existed for over a century. In 1871 it belonged to Ezriel Salamon Meller, a Jewish merchant (Skorowidz, 1871).  It was a residential building; the ground floor premises were rented out to various tenants, including the Ukrainian sports society Sokil.

In the early 20th c. the plots located at the corner of Pidvalna and Ruska streets were bought by the Ukrainian insurance company Dnister. In 1904 the company declared an architectural competition for the construction of a new office and residential building there. The first prize was won by architect Alfred Zachariewicz, but his project was not implemented. Instead, the house was built under a project designed at Ivan Levynskyi's (Jan Lewiński) architectural bureau (Бірюльов, 2008, 418). Their first project made in 1904, which was also submitted to the contest, involved the dismantling of only three townhouses, thus preserving the old configuration of Ruska street (DALO 2/2/3807). However, the project was redesigned. It was finally approved by the Lviv Magistrate on 23 July 1905 (DALO 2/1/3806). Under this project, the whole eastern part of Ruska street was extended. With this in view, all buildings on its southern side were dismantled, including those designated by numbers from 241 to 249. In their place, modern townhouses were built (Ruska street 16, 18, 20). Houses 16 and 18 are designed in the Historicist style while house 20 belongs to the "Hutsul" Secession style, one of the Art Nouveau trends.

As a result of these changes, the housing red line of Ruska street was shifted by 4.8 m to the middle of the block while that of Ivana Fedorova street was shifted by 2.9 m (DALO, 2/2/3802: 79-80, 2/2/3803: 89-90).

The house number 20 on Ruska street was built in 1905-1906. Its façades were designed by architect Tadeusz Obmiński; the graphical solution of the ceramic decoration was developed by Oleksandr Lushpynsky under the artistic direction of Osyp Biloskurskyi (the Prosvita Society calendar, 1907, 88-89). All artistic metal details of the façades (entrance doors, tower and balcony gratings) were produced at the locksmithery of Mykhaylo Stefanivskyi. The construction was managed by Filemon Levynskyi (DALO 2/2/3806). The Dnister company building, richly decorated with ceramics bearing ethnic motifs patterns, moulding, and metal, with its peaked roofs resembling Boyko churches, was the gem of the "Hutsul" Secession style both in Lviv and in whole Ukraine. In addition, the building played an important symbolic role, being the center of the city’s Ukrainian culture, a meeting place for the Ukrainian community.

The building was constructed for the Dnister insurance company; some other Ukrainian unions and organizations had their offices there too. The ground floor was intended for other public functions, such as trade, sports, and food service. The building is divided in plan into two clearly distinguishable blocks, each having a courtyard and a separate entrance, one from Ruska street (block A), while the other from Pidvalna street (block B). According to archival documents, the house had two addresses: Ruska street 20 and Pidvalna street 7 (DALO, 2/1/3806: 89). Its west part (Ruska street 20) was occupied by the company offices and by other organizations; apartments for some representatives of the Ukrainian intelligentsia were located in the part facing Pidvalna street. The apartments were occupied by some well-known Lvivites of Ukrainian origin, including the chairman of the State Secretariat (Government) of the Western Ukrainian Peoples’ Republic Kost’ Levytskyi; Ivan Berezhnytskyi, a dentist well-known throughout Galicia; Osyp Nazaruk, a politician and a public figure, and some others (Ilko Lemko, Lvivska Hazeta, № 32, 2007; Ukrainian daily Svoboda, 1965, 1). It is known that there was an art market in the building’s larger courtyard. The gymnasium situated on the ground floor was occupied by the Ukrainian sports society Sokil. The Ruska Besida theater staged their performances in this gymnasium more than once; besides, it was there that the future stage director and actor Les Kurbas appeared on stage for the first time as a member of an amateur student theater in 1909. Apart from that, a part of the ground floor premises was occupied by a small shop selling products of the Ukrainian confectionery factory Fortuna Nova which existed until 1939. For a short time, the restaurant Fuchsa functioned in the house (Ilko Lemko, Lvivska Hazeta, 60, 2007; DALO 2 / 2/3806: 93). An interesting feature of the project was that it provided the possibility of extending offices at the expense of residential premises, if necessary.

In the 1950s, after the Second World War, the building was deprived of nearly all its original features. The hostel number 1 of the Regional Soviet Party School of the Communist Party regional committee was located there, as well as a cafeteria, the Lviv regional council’s gymnasium, a shoe repair shop and the bathhouse number 5. Now the building is occupied by the First municipal clinic; some parts of the ground floor are also occupied by an Oshchadbank office, a binding shop, a pharmacy, and a gymnasium.

There are no records of any reconstruction of the building. In 2006 a restoration of the small wooden tower was carried out and a part of the roofing was replaced.