Lychakiv Cemetery (Ukrainian:Личаківський цвинтар,romanized: Lychakivskyi tsvyntar;Polish:Cmentarz Łyczakowski we Lwowie), officiallyState History and Culture Museum-Reserve "Lychakiv Cemetery" (Ukrainian:Державний історико-культурний музей-заповідник «Личаківський цвинтар»), is a historic cemetery inLviv, Ukraine.

Lychakiv Cemetery
Ukrainian:Личаківський цвинтар Polish:Cmentarz Łyczakowski
One of the cemetery alleys, 2007.
Details
Established	1787
Location	Lviv
Country	Ukraine
Coordinates	49°49′59″N24°03′22″E / 49.833°N 24.056°E /49.833; 24.056
Type	Public (restricted)
Size	40 ha
No. of graves	more than 300,000
Immovable Monument of National Significance of Ukraine
Official name	Комплекс пам'яток "Личаківський цвинтар" (Lychakiv Cemetery monument complex)
Type	History
Reference no.	130008-Н

Since its creation in 1787 as Łyczakowski Cemetery, it has been the main necropolis of the city's (at the time named Lemberg^[1])intelligentsia,middle andupper classes. Initially the cemetery was located on several hills in the borough of Lychakiv, following the imperialAustro-Hungarian (the city was located in Austria-Hungary at the time^[1]) edict ordering that all cemeteries be moved outside of the city limits. The original project was prepared byKarol Bauer [pl], the head of theLviv Universitybotanical garden.

In mid-1850s the cemetery was expanded significantly by Tytus Tchórzewski, who created the present network of alleys and round-abouts. It then became the main city cemetery, and soon most other cemeteries were closed. The two largest that remained were the Yanivskiy Cemetery (Polish:cmentarz Janowski), with many working class graves and the adjacent NewJewish Cemetery. Lychakivskiy Cemetery was used by all Christian sects in the city: in addition toRoman Catholics, it also includedEastern Rite Catholics,Protestants andOrthodox.

AfterWorld War II the city (at the time named Lwów^[1]) was annexed (from theSecond Polish Republic^[1]) by theSoviet Union to theUkrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The majority of the surviving pre-war inhabitants of the city were expelled to theformer German areas awarded to Poland after the Yalta Conference. This started a period of devastation of historical monuments located at the cemetery. Up to 1971 many of the sculptures were destroyed. However, in 1975 the cemetery was declared a historical monument and the degradation ended. Since thelate 1980s, the cemetery has seen constant rebuilding and refurbishment and continues to be one of the principal tourist attractions ofLviv.

In late 2006 the city administration announced plans to transfer the tombs ofStepan Bandera,Yevhen Konovalets,Andriy Melnyk and other key leaders ofOrganization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) /Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) to a new area of the cemetery dedicated to the Ukrainian national liberation struggle.^[2]

The Ukrainian National Army Memorial (Number 8 on the plan) is devoted to theUkrainian National Army soldiers buried in the cemetery, including soldiers of theSS Division "Galicia". It was established due to the efforts of Ukrainian national-patriotic organizations and the Ukrainian emigrant veterans' movement. It was established with the special effort ofFerentsevich Yuri ^[uk], a division veteran, Ukrainian emigrant veterans' movement social activist andPlast (National Scout Organization of Ukraine) veteran who took an active part in the creation of memorials to the SS Division Galicia on the mountainZhbyr ^[uk] and near the village ofChervone ^[uk].^[3]

On the north side of the Cemetery is situatedField of Mars (No. 1 on the plan), a war memorial built in 1974. This war memorial originally the graves of 3,800 Soviet soldiers who died in the battles against the Nazi occupiers duringWorld War II) (namedGreat Patriotic War inSoviet ideology^[4]) and against units ofUkrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) (acting up to the mid-1950s). On the wall of the memorial was written a verse:

At the middle of the planet
in the storm clouds thunder
deads are watching the sky
believing in the wisdom of livings

Poetic writing in honor of theSoviet soldiers was eliminated at the direction of urban authorities in 1990s.^[5]

The Field of Mars has been used as a burial site for Ukrainians soldiers who died during theRusso-Ukrainian War due to the lack of space at the Ukrainian National Army Memorial within the walls of the Lychakiv Cemetery, according to the head of theUkrainian Greek Catholic Church's Military Chaplaincy Center. TheLviv Oblast Council announced on May 20, 2022 that it would hold an architectural contest in order to select the design for a war memorial at the site, which has been described as part of thedecommunization process in Ukraine.^[6] On August 19, 2022, Lviv authorities approved the exhumation of the remains of Soviet soldiers from the location.^[7] The exhumation proceedings uncovered remains dating back to theFirst World War and belonging to soldiers of theGerman,Austro-Hungarian,Ottoman andRussian armies, which are set to be moved into a dedicated section within the planned memorial,^[8] as well as World War II andpost-War Soviet burials, which will be transferred to the Holoskiv Cemetery in Lviv.^[8][9]

TheCemetery of the Defenders of Lwów (Cemetery of Eaglets,Polish:Cmentarz Orląt Lwowskich) is a memorial and a burial place for thePoles and their allies who died in Lviv during the hostilities of thePolish-Ukrainian War (1918−1919) andPolish-Soviet War (1919−1921).

The complex is a part of the city's historic Lychakiv Cemetery. There are about 3000 graves in that part of the cemetery; some from theLwów Eaglets youngmilitia volunteers, after whom that part of the cemetery is named. It was one of the most famousnecropolises of theinterwar Poland. Lviv was a city in interwar Poland and at the time named Lwów.^[1]

In 1925, the ashes of one of the unknown defenders of Lwów were transferred to theTomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw. After that was built the «Polish mausoleum» (Lwów Eaglets Memorial).

After World War II the cemetery of Lwów Eaglets was completely destroyed and turned into a truck depot and at one time Eaglets Cemetery was damaged with a bulldozer.^[10]

Due to the history of complexPolish-Ukrainian relations, the Polish Eaglets Cemetery was neglected because the Ukrainian authorities did not want to rebuild this monument of young Polish soldiers defending the city in 1920s. Though in the late 1980s, workers of a Polish company which were working inKhmelnytskyi started to redecorate and rebuild the necropolis from its ruins (which was not always legal according to Ukrainian law). Although the Ukrainian authorities tried to stop the works several times, the Poles managed to renovate this important memorial of great Lvovians.

Since 1999 there is also a monument to theSich Riflemen located just outside the Polish mausoleum.

Since thefall of communism, the cemetery had been rebuilt and refurbished. It was finally reopened on 24 June 2005.

In the back part of the cemetery (No. 6 on the plan) on a separate field indicated original steel crosses, located «1863 rebels' hill». Buried here are membersPolish January Uprising of 1863, of which a member of the PolishCentral National CommitteeBronisław Szwarce, the famous zoologistBenedykt Dybowski,cornetVitebsk land, resting under the central monument rebelsShimon Vizunas Shidlovsky ^[pl], etc.

There are also numerous parts of the cemetery in which veterans of most wars of 19th and 20th centuries are buried, including the quarters of veterans of:

• November Uprising (1830−1831)
• World War I
• Polish Defensive War (1939)
• Victims of theNKVD (1941)
• World War II

Since the city for centuries used to be a centre of Polish culture, there are numerous famous Poles buried there. Among them are:

• Roman Abraham, general
• Stefan Banach, mathematician
• Wladyslaw Belza, writer
• Piotr Chmielowski, philosopher
• Benedykt Dybowski, soldier, adventurer, ethnologist and biologist
• Mieczysław Garsztka, aviator
• Mieczysław Gębarowicz, historian
• Tadeusz Rozwadowski, Polish military leader and one of the founders of modern Poland
• Franciszek Ksawery Godebski, historian
• Zygmunt Gorgolewski, architect, designer of theLviv Opera
• Seweryn Goszczyński, poet
• Artur Grottger, artist
• Jan Nepomucen Kamiński [pl], founder of the first theatre in Lwów
• Wojciech Kętrzyński, historian and name-sake of the city ofKętrzyn
• Maria Konopnicka, writer
• Juliusz Konstanty Ordon, officer
• Ludwik Rydygier, surgeon
• Władysław Sadłowski, architect
• Kazimierz Sichulski, painter
• Karol Szajnocha, historian
• Julian Zachariewicz, architect
• Gabriela Zapolska, novelist and playwright

Among the notable Ukrainians buried there are:

• Oleksander Barvinsky, academician, politician.
• Vasyl Barvinsky, impressionist composer
• Yevheniya Barvinska, pianist, choral conductor, singer
• Roman Bezpalkiv, Ukrainian painter
• Taras Bobanych, Ukrainian lawyer and soldier
• Ivan Franko, poet and reformer of theUkrainian language
• Yaroslav Halan, playwright and publicist
• Jacques Hnizdovsky, painter, printmaker, sculptor, bookplate designer and illustrator of numerous books, both in Ukrainian and English
• Volodymyr Ivasyuk, composer
• Mykhaylo Kobryn [uk], theologian
• Solomiya Krushelnytska, soprano opera star
• Lesya Kryvytska, actress
• Stanyslav Lyudkevych, composer
• Oleksander Ohonovsky, lawyer, civic leader
• Anthony Petrushevych, historian and philologist.
• Markiyan Shashkevych, poet
• Yurii Shukhevych, political prisoner and politician
• Oleksandr Tysowskyj (alternately Alexander Tysovsky), founder of Ukrainian Scouting
• Anatole Vakhnianyn, composer and leading cultural figure
• Iryna Vilde (Polotniuk), Ukrainian writer
• Hryhorii Chubai, Ukrainian poet
• Borys Voznytsky [uk], hero of Ukraine, academician, director of the Lviv National Gallery
• Yuriy Starosol'skyi [uk], Chief Scout of Plast from 1972 to 1991
• Taras Levkiv, Ukrainian artist who specialized in ceramics

• Edmund Pike Graves, pilot and member of theKościuszko Squadron

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  Lychakiv Cemetery – main gate (c.a. 1900)
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  Mausoleum of Kiselka family byFilip Pokutyński [pl]
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  Lychakiv Cemetery (2018)