www.lonckoho.lviv.ua
Work time 9.00 - 19.00, Mon - Sun
Phone: (032) 247 42 20
Email: memorial@lonckoho.lviv.ua
Address: Lviv. 1 Stepan Bandera str.[/b]
The Creation of the Memorial
The initiative of the community of Lviv to create a Memorial for the victims of the occupying regimes who were held in the former Lontskoho prison was supported by the Lviv City Council, Lviv Regional Council and the Security Service of Ukraine.
Coordination efforts for presenting the Memorial museum are carried out by a working group comprised of representatives of the above- nentioned organizations, the Liberation Movement Research Center and renowned public figures.
The Liberation Movement Research Center had conducted a profound study of the prison's history, and also collects memories and testimonies of former prisoners.
As a result, the work group has approved plans for a Memorial- museum. The working group elaborated the top priorities for the Memorial: to organize and make photographic images of the museum building and the surrounding area, to provide historical and architectural research, testing the facilities in prison, to develop zoning of the museum and the surrounding area, and to conduct initial architectural restoration and exhumational works.
On June 28, 2009 the first stage of the exposition of the Memorial- Museum at the prison on Lontskoho street was opened, prepared by the Liberation Movement Research Center and the Security Service of Ukraine.
Exhibits of the Museum
The Memorial museum's exhibition "Prison on Lontskoho" - the first stage of the future museum - has three storylines: the history of the building, daily life in the prison, and the mass shootings in late June 1941. It is located on the first floor. Entrance is from present day Bryullova street (formerly known as Lontskoho street) - where the entrance was during the days when the prison actually functioned.
A checkpoint, prison cells, an investigator's office, a photo lab and other aspects of routine life in this prison have been prepared to be viewed by the public. A few prison cells are used as exposition halls. The jorridors are lined with information about the history of the building, lists of names of executed prisoners, and text documents bearing the evidence of life in this prison during different periods.
A separate exposition hall is dedicated to Father Mykola Khmiliovsky - a priest in the underground Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and a Chairman and member of the UHVR, the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council - who had been a prisoner of this jail. Through the prism of his criminal case file you can trace the life and work of the many different political prisoners who were connected to him who were also detained in the prison on Lontskoho street.
The mass executions in the end of June 1941 - considered to be the bloodiest page in the history of the prison - are highlighted in the museum. In one exhibition hall, old newsreel presents the days after the Soviet troops had departed from the city - highlighting the devastation of that regimes murderous final days.
In another room are photos taken in the prison during this time, as well as period Ukrainian newspapers which widely reported the crimes of the communist regime.
Among all the cells in the prison, in which conditions of everyday life of prisoners are reproduced, pay special attention to the so called "condemned cell" - where prisoners awaited execution, which often was carried out by a firing squad.
In a separate hall, reproductions of propaganda posters of that time are on display, accompanied by such patriotic songs as "Wide Is My Motherland". This room shows a sharp contrast between official propaganda and real life in the Soviet Union - in particular, the conditions of habitation in the prison on Lontskoho street are presented.
The exposition ends with "oral stories" - audio recordings of memories by former prisoners.
Open daily from 10.00 to 19.00 ( closed for break from 14.00 to 15.00)
Sunday. - till 17.00 without a break Exhibits and tours are free of charge
tel. - (032) 243-04-46
Every Sunday at 13.00 -documentary film screening and discussion
