Market Square (Lviv)

Coordinates: 49°50′29″N 24°01′53″E / 49.841466°N 24.031265°E / 49.841466; 24.031265

Rynok Square (Ukrainian: Площа Ринок, Polish: Rynek we Lwowie) is a central square of the city of Lviv, Ukraine. It was planned in the second half of the 14th century, following granting city rights by King Casimir III the Great of Poland, who incorporated Red Ruthenia into the Kingdom of Poland in 1349. The king ordered Lviv to be moved more to the south, where a new city was built to the plan of a traditional European settlement: a central square surrounded by living quarters and fortifications. Old, Ruthenian Lviv had become a suburb of the new Polish city.

The square is rectangular in shape, with measurements of 142 metres by 129 metres and with two streets radiating out of every corner. In the middle there was a row of houses, with its southern wall made by the Town Hall. However, when in 1825 the tower of the Town Hall burned, all adjacent houses were demolished and a new hall, with a 65-metre tower, was built in 1835 by architects J. Markl and F. Trescher.

Around the square, there are 44 tenement houses, which represent several architectural styles, from Renaissance to Modernism. In the four corners, there are fountains—wells from 1793, probably designed by Hartman Witwer. The sculptures represent four Greek mythological figures: Neptune, Diana, Amphitrite and Adonis. In front of the Town Hall, there was a pillory. In 1998 the Market Place, together with the historic city center of Lviv, was recognised as a UNESCO world heritage...