Ivan Franko National University of Lviv Botanical Garden

The garden history began in 1852 when it was founded by professor Hiacynt Łobarzewski at the Trinitarian monastery’s garden (now Cyril and Methodius Street), on the northeastern slope of the Mount Kalicha (Kalicha Hora) in the central part of the city of Lviv. Between 1855 and 1862, ladscape architect Karl Bauer, working there as a park inspector, designed and constructed greenhouses and established an English-style dendrological park. Since 1872, the garden gained particular progress as part of the Institute of Botany headed by professor Teofil Ciesielski, when its collections were significantly enriched both by local and exotic species and collection management improved, especially with Adam Blazek who became a new chief gardener in 1889.

In 1911, to expand the garden’s area, the University acquired a 4.5 ha plot of land in the city’s eastern part near Lychakiv village, in the locality called Tsetnerivka (now Marka Cheremshyny Street). As a former estate of the Bełz voivode Ignacy Tsetner (hence its name), Tsetnerivka was once a gorgeous park with numerous cultivated plants, many being exotic, which later became overgrown and neglected by its subsequent owners, Tsetner’s descendants, until the acquisition of its large part by the University.

The topographic heterogeneity of this land, with slopes of different expositions, a pond, swampy dale, and dry elevated plateaus, inspired the attempts to create vegetation fragments of various types of natural biotopes. However, substantial development of the garden began only after the WW I under the directorship of a Polish botanist and university professor Stanisław Kulczyński starting from 1924. Over the next 15 years, the garden’s collections were being enriched by collecting species of the Galician flora in the wild during organized field excursions.

After a severe garden damage and collection losses caused by the WW II, its new director Andriy Lazarenko contributed by expanding the garden’s part on Cheremshyny Street til 104 ha by adding the adjacent lands of the Armenian Catholic Archeparchy of Lviv. He also created the Department of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry within the garden still functioning today. In the early 1970s, most of this land was transferred to the city to become the Pohulyanka park, with 16.5 ha of the garden remaining (as it is now). In 1974, a new greenhouse complex of 1250 m² was constructed there, which became a new home to many of the tropical and subtropical plants formerly housed in the old greenhouses of the garden’s part on Cyril and Methodius Street (2 ha of total area including nine greenhouses, the dendropark, and plots with ornamentals).

Today, the garden is an important educational, research, and plant conservation institution, which is part of the Nature Reserve Fund of Ukraine since 1992. It houses a rich plant collection of roughly 6000 plant taxa managed by four floristic departments: Dept. of Wild Herbaceous Flora, Dept. of Dendrology, Dept. of Cultivated Flora and Landscaping, and Dept. of Tropical and Subtropical Plants. The whole collection of the latter is listed in the State Register of Scientific Objects of the National Heritage of Ukraine since 2002.

The garden also serves the Lviv city’s major educative and pastime activity hub, offering annual thematic exhibitions of plant collections, regular excursions for school and university students, as well as various activities with eco-educational and plant conservation focus aimed at a broad audience (including special-needs children).

Address:

Ivan Franko National University of Lviv Botanical Garden
Cheremshyny Street, 44 (main territory with administration, 16,5 ha) – 49.830073, 24.064974
Cyril and Methodius Street, 4 (2 ha) – 49.832730, 24.031185
Lviv 79014, Ukraine

Opening times and access:
The garden is open to regular visitors during April–November four times a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday) from 10:00 to 17:00. As of today, only the main territory of the garden (on Cheremshyny Street, 44) is available for regular visits. Organized excursions are by appointment only.

For detailed information on opening times, types of visits (regular, excursions, photo/video tours, etc.), and costs please visit the garden’s website (https://botanicgarden.lnu.edu.ua/) (in Ukrainian). The announcements of events and other information on garden’s collections are also available on its FB page (https://www.facebook.com/botsad.lnu/) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/botanicgarden_lnu).