Today was our last full day in Ukraine. We'd originally booked Alex through Thursday, but since we didn't get to see all of the sites on our itinerary in that time, he gave us an extra day. In the morning, Alex and our trusty driver Oleh took us about 30 km north to the cool little town of Zhovkva. Zhovkva was founded in the middle ages by a Polish nobleman who is kind of a national hero in Poland. He and his family are buried in a cathedral in town just of the main square, and it is a popular place for Polish tourists to visit. The tow was also an important trading center in medieval times, and many of the buildings were designed to allow merchants' carts to drive up under covered porticoes to unload their goods. The ploschcha (square) was rather beautiful and open (i.e., no city hall building in the center). At one end was was a fortress with a set of gates on either side. The town also once had a thriving Jewish community, and the primary purpose was to see the medieval synagogue. Built in the so-called "fortress style," it has incredibly thick walls - so thick, in fact, that the Nazis were unable to blow it up. The inside was gutted, though. Like Drohobych, this synagogue was in a period of restoration and it was surrounded by scaffolding. Apparently, there are plans to turn it into a museum of Jewish history, but I don't see this happening anytime soon. Also, there was a wooden church that was open & didn't restrict photography, so I took a few shots.
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| Zhovkva Castle, with flanking gates |
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| Me, taking a photo |
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| Wooden church exterior |
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| Wooden church interior - chandelier and iconostasis |
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| Zhovkva synagogue |
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| perimeter of the town square |
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| Cathedral |
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| gate |
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| another perimeter shot |
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| historic buildings, public spaces |
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| main gate, Zhovkva Castle |
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| peering inside to the courtyard of the castle... |
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| castle wall |
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| historic commercial buildings around the town square |
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| Dad in front of a shop |
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