In 1492, right when Columbus had just reached America, Konstanty Ostrozky began building a stone castle above the Ikva River. Over the next five centuries …
Dubno Castle — Never Taken by Storm, Sold Over Card Debts
The Branicki Winter Palace in Bila Tserkva — an Art School in a Neoclassical Shell
In the center of Bila Tserkva, on Oleksandriiskyi Boulevard, stands a two-story neoclassical building with an Ionic portico. From the street, it looks restrained, almost …
The Tyszkiewicz Palace in Brody — 1912 Neoclassicism in Stari Brody
Brody is a town with an exceptionally rich architectural legacy: a 17th-century fortress, the Potocki palace, synagogues, townhouses. And amid all of it — on …
The Badeni Palace in Busk — Two Hundred Years on a Hill Above the Buh
The palace at the center of Busk is more than two hundred years old. It has outlasted three states, two owning families, fires, a military …
Horodetsky House — the Architect Built It, Then Sold It Ten Years Later to Fund His Trips to Africa
Seeing the plot on the steep slope above Bankova St., a colleague of Horodetsky’s told him bluntly: “Forgive me, but you must be out of …
St. George’s Church in Krasnopillia — a Gothic Vertical Amid the Southern Steppe
The Mykolaiv region is genuinely flat. Fields, wind, steppe to the horizon. And then, suddenly — a 125-ft (38 m) bell tower. To understand why …
Alexander Barracks in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi — a Fortress Against the Turks, Built in Turkish Style
The barracks were built to defend against Turkish influence — and then designed in a Turkish style. That’s neither irony nor a mistake. It was …
The Holy Trinity Church in Medzhybizh — Ruins Between the Castle and the River, Blown Up in 1962
Medzhybizh stands at the confluence of the Boh and Buzhok rivers — and for five centuries, this exact spot has been where roads, armies, religions, …
Tunnel of Love in Klevan — a Green Corridor That Exists Because of a Train, Not in Spite of One
Most people who come here think nature swallowed up a railway. It’s actually the opposite. The green arch exists because of the trains — not …
St. Lawrence Church in Taikury — Baroque, a Buried Treasure, and Catacombs 9 Miles from Rivne
Nine miles from Rivne, between three spurs of the Avratyn Plateau, stand two ruins side by side: a castle and a church. The castle dates …
St. Mary Magdalene Church in Vovkiv — Art Deco Amid the “Lviv Carpathians”
Fourteen miles from Lviv, in the valley of the Zubra River, stands a building that doesn’t fit any expected image of a village church. It’s …