“Insights. Zoom on the East” is a series of lectures organised by the Museum of Cracow, whose goal is to educate about Ukrainian culture and history and its connections to Polish history. On May 31st there will be a lecture about Żółkiew (currently known as Zhovkva), a city established and named after hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski. The speech will take place at 8 P.M. in the Podgórze Museum in Cracow.
The series was introduced to shine a light on the traditions, language, history and culture of Ukraine, so needed to understand those who fled to Poland after Russia’s invasion in February. The lectures focus on different places in Ukraine, and through them explain the identity of the country. Tomorrow’s lecture is titled “On the Borderline of Cultures. Żółkiew – from an ideal to the modern city”. The name of the lecture comes from the fact that the place was built on a Renaissance ideal city plan.
During the lecture, dr Michał Grabowski will explain the history of the city, the reasons for its prosperity and the reasons it fell. He will also talk about the religious and ethnic diversity of the city and how it impacted the architecture.
Żółkiew was a private, fortified town founded in 1597 by Stanisław Żółkiewski, a renowned military commander of 16th– and 17th-century Poland. It was built on the Renaissance ideal city plan, and that’s where the lecture’s title takes its inspiration from. Żółkiew is located in the Lviv Raion, where many trade routes crossed. Thanks to that the city prospered, attracting many peasants, merchants, but also noblemen. After Hetman’s death, the city was bought by John III Sobieski and became his favourite residence. During Poland’s Partitions, it was under the Austrian Monarchy and came back to Poland after World War I. In 1944, it was included in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and after the fall of the Soviet Union, it became an integral part of Ukraine.