Lychakiv Cemetery

Lychakiv opened in 1786 when burials were moved out of the city churchyards, and it grew into one of the great European necropolises: forty hectares of wooded hillside with something over three hundred thousand burials and several thousand carved monuments, from neoclassical to Secession, laid out along winding avenues. Writers, composers, architects and merchants of Lviv's Polish, Ukrainian, Armenian and Austrian communities lie together across the slopes.

What you actually see

• The carved monuments - several thousand sculpted tombs across two centuries of style.
• The avenues - winding paths through forty hectares of wooded hillside.
• The mixed communities - Polish, Ukrainian, Armenian and Austrian burials side by side.
• The Secession tombs - art nouveau monuments from the turn of the century.

When to go

April to October is the most comfortable, with autumn colour among the tombs the best of the year. Mornings are quietest. The cemetery closes in the late afternoon.

Honest expectations

It is very large and easy to lose the thread of; a map or a guide helps considerably. Many inscriptions are weathered and hard to read. It remains a working cemetery and behaviour should reflect that.

Nearby

Lviv's old town is west, and Shevchenkivskyi Hai is on the same side of the city.