The Movement of the Lviv City Slaughterhouse

The logic of the Zhovkivske suburb development can be understood after tracing the history of the city slaughterhouse movement. This institution was quite vital for the city, but, at the same time, it was also a place where dirt and sewage concentrated; traditionally, it was located on the Poltva, near the Krakivska gate, that is where the river flowed out of the city center. In 1870 it was moved to the then end of the city, beyond the Poltva, away from the eyes of the city residents. In the early twentieth century the magistrate decided to finally solve the problem of insanitary conditions. In 1904 a new slaughterhouse was moved even further, to what is now vul. Promyslova, and was equipped in accordance with the latest contemporary approaches, as in other major European cities.

The "new slaughterhouse" looked like a whole autonomous town. According to the latest German planning approaches, it was in separate buildings that the actual slaughterhouse, veterinary and sanitary centers, a walled market, numerous administrative buildings with offices and apartments for workers, machine rooms with the newest steam equipment, which ensured the generation of electricity and artificial ice, were located.  A railway connected the "new slaughterhouse" with the Pidzamche railway station.

The buildings were constructed with the use of the then latest technology of reinforced concrete; as concerns the exterior design, the brick industrial style  was dominant there, which was still typical from the nineteenth century. At the end of 1930 the whole complex was reconstructed. In Soviet times a meat processing and packing factory functioned there, which collapsed after the disintegration of the Union. Today the territory of the former "new slaughterhouse" is rented by various enterprises.