A Path of the Powder Tower from a Ruin to a Historic Site

We invite you to a city walk with architectural researcher Olha Zarechniuk.

Today the Powder Tower is an undeniable historical and architectural site in Lviv. In the nineteenth century, it was considered a half-ruined building that spoiled the street view and had no place in a modern city.

The heritage protectors of that time faced these circumstances. First, they proposed to turn the Tower into a museum, which Lviv lacked at the time, and then to move the City Archives, which could not fit within the Town Hall walls, here. These intentions were not realized due to a lack of funds. The government in Vienna, the Galician Regional Government, the city, nor private individuals were willing to finance this project.

However, the project of the unrealized adaptation of the Tower is quite extraordinary. On the one hand, it reflects the practices of outdated stylistic restoration. On the other hand, it visually separated the original building from the new additions, as in modern restoration practices. But even the "new" additions were supposed to be architectural details salvaged from previously demolished Lviv Renaissance tenements.

The Powder Tower was supposed to become a symbol of the lost past, of which only some fragments remained, and to remind Lviv residents of the times when the city had to defend itself against sieges.

The walk will be based on the publication by Lviv Interactive, "A New Life for the Powder Tower," one of the first publications within the framework of the Center's research project "Shoulder of Heritage." It will focus on the personalities of the heritage preservationists, the beginnings of modern approaches to architectural restoration, and the Polonization processes in Lviv on the eve of the First World War.

To join the event, please, register. After registration, we will inform you about the meeting place.

The city walk will take 1.5 hours.

Credits

Cover Image: A sketch of the adaptation of the Tower by Kazimierz Mokłowski, published in: Franciszek Jaworski, Baszta prochowa i archiwum miejskie (Lwów, 1905)

Galley: Iryna Sereda