Lviv will never be able to catch up with the five Ukrainian millionaire cities in terms of the number of inhabitants. The luxurious capital of Galicia is home to only 758,000 people, and the demographic situation in the country does not allow us to hope for a sudden leap to the coveted figure. But by other indicators Lviv easily overtakes the largest cities of the young state. This locality has more attractions than Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk. In addition, Danil Galitsky’s favorite «brainchild», named by him after his son, Leo, has more parks and gardens than the highly cultured Odessa and Kiev. With its 20 parks and 4 botanical gardens, this city quietly takes the title of the most «green», ecologically clean and comfortable for the residents of Ukraine.
In addition to the famous Stryjskij Park and the one that forms the landscape of «High Castle», Lviv has another legend — Bohdan Khmelnitsky Park of Culture and Recreation. It is a natural frame-adornment for Stryyska, Vitovsky and Gvardeyska streets. The area of the green zone is 26 hectares, which allows it to look down on the territories of the Vatican, Monaco, Gibraltar and the Cocos Islands.
This emerald appeared in the center of the most Europeanized city of Ukraine in the XIX century. The basis for the park was Pelchinsky pond. This pond existed due to the feeding from numerous streams flowing from the Vuletsky hills. Already in 1824 the picturesque area became a place of walks of the city elite — Armenian merchants with their families, Polish pannock girls, intelligent Jewish young men and Russian-Ukrainian prosperous bourgeoisie. Ladies showed off their outfits, gentlemen showed off their canes and manners, and a brass band played.
Especially popular was the place where Pelchinsky pond was connected to the Soroka River. In summer there was a bathing place, and in winter a skating rink was organized. But at the beginning of the XX century, apparently anticipating bad things, the streams feeding the pond dried up. In 1921, the resulting swamp was filled in, and during the war, the once luxurious place of rest was turned into a cemetery.
In 1951, when the period of improving the quality of life of citizens began, the idea of restoring the ancient resting place arose in the minds of the town governors. The burials were moved, and architect G. Shvetsko-Vinetsky was entrusted to organize the space of the park. Thus appeared the Central Axial Alley stretching to the future Monument of Glory, the famous snow-white arch-entrance, echoing the beauty of the signatures on Lviv temples, fountains and agricultural pavilion. Until 1965, the park was the main location of the agrarian exhibition, demonstrating to the citizens the production successes of peasants from the surrounding villages. By the way, the park was named in honor of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, and on one of its alleys appeared a bust of the hetman of the Zaporizhian Army, as the initiator of negotiations between the Cossacks and the Russian Tsar.
Slightly later in the park was built a number of attractions, among which stood out the «Ferris wheel». After admiring the panorama of Lviv from its booths, citizens and guests of the Galician capital moved to the cinema «Druzhba» to watch a new movie, to the stadium «Yunost» or to the concert hall «Romantic», on the stage of which performed folklore groups, touring mediums and representatives of Ukrainian pop music.
To date, this «green» landmark of Lviv has not lost its importance as a place for citywide celebrations, performances of amateur groups, organized exhibitions of flowers and presentations of craftsmen from different districts of the region, schools and colleges. Coming on vacation in Lviv, guests will be able to make sure that the park lives and breathes, it is loved and is a place of meetings, promenades and entertainment for many generations of Lviv citizens, as in those times when in the «city garden plays brass band …».