Ivano-Frankivsk has a relatively new name, but it’s a pretty old city. The city was founded in 1650 and named Stanisławów (in Polish), a name that it held until 1962 when it was changed to honor the Ukrainian poet, Ivan Franko, now venerated as a national hero, though he died in poverty in 1916 (he is, by the way, buried at the Lychakivskiy Cemetery in Lwów, which I have written about in my blog recently. The city of Stanisławów , then was built as a fortress by the Potocki family. After the partition of Poland, it became one of the most important cities in the foothills of the Carpathian mountains.
You can see my pictures of Ivano-Frankivsk (a/k/a Stanisławów ) here: http://poland.leonkonieczny.com/Poland%202011/Ivano-Frankivsk/index.html.
We stopped in to visit Ivano-Frankivsk on our way to the Carpathians mountains, having left Lwow early in the morning. We parked near the city center and spent the next hour or so exploring the area. We saw the center of the city with some nice gardens, and a prominent statue of the famous Polish poet, Adam Mickiewicz. We visited several gorgeous churches including the Greek Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Resurrection. Beautiful church inside. We stopped by the Ivano-Frankivsk Art Museum which is housed in a building that was at one time the Collegiate Church of the Virgin Mary, a Roman Catholic Church. With the removal of all the Poles from Ukraine after World War II, the building fell into decline and had various purposes until in 1980 it underwent substantial restoration and became the Art Museum. Unfortunately for us, it was a Monday and the Museum was closed. But it is a gorgeous building from the outside, as you can see.
We came across a flea market near the Potocki Palace. You can see the gate and walls of the palace in my photos, it’s a big white stone structure with iron gates. The palace was ruined in World War II when a bomber crashed into it. However, it looks like there are some plans to restore it, as there is a brand new and not-yet-opened ticket center on one wall (you can see it in the photos). I’m sure some day (soon) it will be a tourist attraction.
Otherwise, Ivano-Frankivsk (often called simple “Franyk” by the locals) is a very nice city, a somewhat large city (almost 1/4 million population), as you can see from the photos. But remember that it played an important part in Polish history because it was built to defend Poland from the Turks and the Russians–and it did. You can read a bit more about it’s history here.
