Statue of Liberty, Lviv

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Sculptural composition "Agriculture. Savings. Industry" adorns the Lviv Museum of Ethnography and Arts and Crafts. At the time, it was installed on the premises of the Galician Savings Bank. The architectural composition was created by Leonard Marconi, a Lviv sculptor of Italian origin. The Lviv Lady Savings Bank has been saving money for decades and making sure that it went to its intended purpose. The two men on each side symbolize industry and agriculture, the main sectors that would receive the profits.

The Galician Savings Bank provided loans to its customers secured by securities, estates, and real estate. After 10 years of operation, the amount of deposits reached 8 million market zlotys, and after 40 years - 34.5 million market zlotys!

Lviv's beautiful Statue of Liberty, which looks out at passers-by from the facade of the Museum of Ethnography and Arts and Crafts and symbolizes the financial prosperity of Galicia.

The Lviv sculpture is the Freedom of the new time, which illuminates the world. It is very similar to the American Statue of Liberty, but it was unveiled five years later in 1891. The composition on the then premises of the Galician Savings Bank symbolized savings and prosperity.

Theseven rays of its "crown " point to the seven corners of the world and freedom in finance and politics. And the two men embraced by Savings symbolize the two areas of the national economy: agriculture and industry.

The building that houses the museum's exhibition once functioned as the Galician Savings Bank. The incredibly talented architect Yulian Zakharevych took on the construction of the cash desk. Soon, on the site of the English Hotel, which was dismantled in 1887, a building that became one of the best examples of Eastern European buildings of that time grew up.

The building still flaunts its façade, which is luxuriously decorated with broken stone rustication, yellow brick, and forged metal decorations. The interior of the building is no less mesmerizing. Attention is drawn to the elegant marble staircase and the incredibly beautiful stained-glass windows that let in daylight.

The museum of ethnography and artistic crafts houses exhibits of great value. In the lobby of the museum, there is an eighteenth-century carriage as if a pair of graceful thoroughbred horses were about to be harnessed to it. Hours, minutes, and seconds are controlled by a 164-year-old French picture clock, which, thanks to a special mechanism, can come to life. The exposition also features a human-sized vase, antique furniture, miniature cabinets (tiny lockers in which wealthy people used to transport valuables), and much, much more.

We advise you to include the Museum of Ethnography and Arts and Crafts in your travel plan.

Most of the moneyfor the restoration of the historic composition for Galicia was raised at charity auctions - more than 300 thousand hryvnias, another 300 thousand were allocated from the city budget. The idea to restore this composition came from Lviv resident Serhiy Smirnov, who had been raising funds for seven years.