Protection of Monuments in Lviv during the First World War: Personalities and Institutions

This Urban Seminar is focused on discussing a draft of Roksoliana Holovata's article about the protection of monuments in Lviv during the First World War.

The Great War divided the history of Lviv, as well as monument protection in the city, into two periods that posed different challenges and tasks. The article focuses on key individuals and institutions that protected Lviv's collections and restored damaged monuments during and after the Russian occupation of the city. The first part of the article describes attempts to secure the city's library and art collections at a time when institutions de facto lost their ability to influence any processes in the city. The main responsibility at this time fell on individuals, such as the archivist Aleksander Czołowski and the art historian Yevgeny Shmurlo, who were sent from St. Petersburg. Instead, after the liberation of Lviv, institutional life not only revived, but also expanded, despite obstacles. And the main concern of monument conservationists is to restore the war-damaged monuments in the provinces and to return what was taken away by their own or another empire.

The article also raises such issues as the need to cooperate with the occupation authorities in order to preserve monuments, attempts to export collections under the pretext of saving them, as well as the excessive centralization of conservation institutions in Austria-Hungary and, in contrast, the initiative of local communities and their cooperation with the provincial authorities.

The Seminar will be held in Ukrainian.

This Seminar will be held in a workshop format. Researchers are invited to discuss scholarly projects, research at various stages of development, and completed research that is being prepared for publication.

Participation in the Urban Seminar requires preliminary reading and discussion of the researcher's text. If you would like to join the Seminar, please email Maryana Mazurak (m.mazurak@lvivcenter.org), and we will send you the materials in advance.

Credits

Cover Image: In the courtyard of the Town Hall in Russian-occupied Lviv. Aleksander Czołowski (center), Bohdan Janusz (second from left), and others are leaving the City Archives / January 1915 / Polona.pl