Lviv Rail Terminal
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The Main Train Station in Lviv, Ukraine, is one of the most notable pieces of Art Nouveau architecture in former Galicia. It was opened to the public in 1903.
[edit] History
Construction of an extensive net of railways within the Austro-Hungarian Empire allowed the city of Lemberg (its German name at the time) to retain its nodal position, at the crossing of several notable trade routes. As the capital of Galicia, the city needed a new, representative and large train station that would suit the city needs and replace the old neo-Gothic train station built between 1861 and 1862.
In 1888 a renowned Polish architect and a graduate of the Lwów Technical Academy Władysław Sadłowski was entitled with creation of a project of a new train station. The final project, prepared in less than a year, encompassed a large, horizontally-oriented main hall, with two large train yards located in the background. The main entrance was topped with a large dome made of bolted steel and stained glass. Both wings of the symmetrical building were constituted by two pavillons, each with a smaller cupola.
The main entrance was flanked by a set of Toscan columns and large mythological sculptures, with the one representing Hypnos being the most notable. Since Sadłowski was the main representative of the William Morris' Arts and Crafts movement in Poland, his project included not only the architectonical part of the future building, but also the ornaments and decorations. The project of three waiting halls (one for each class of travellers) was prepared in cooperation with other graduate of Sadłowski's alma mater, Alfred Zachariewicz.
The first class waiting hall was modelled after English gentlemen clubs and was equipped with dark, luxurious Viennese-style furniture, resembling the works of the Wiener Werkstätte. Second class waiting room was modelled after 19th century burgher houses in Galicia, while the third class waiting hall was equipped with simple wooden pieces of furniture, modelled after the Zakopane style of Polish mountaneers and made by renown artist Tadeusz Obmiński.
The ornaments featured in the tunnels leading to the platforms and in the platforms themselves were prepared by a Kraków-based company of Józef Górecki. Made of bent steel, the balustrades and railings bore direct resemblance to the style of the Paris Métro ornaments designed by Hector Guimard.
The construction started in 1899 and lasted until 1903, when the train station was opened to the public. It was visited by some of the most renowned architects of the epoch and influenced the later constructions of the train stations in Prague (Josef Franta, 1909) and Vienna (Otto Wagner).
After the World War II, when the city was annexed by the Soviet Union, the Rail Treminal was intergrated into the Soviet Railway system. Frequent renovations and upgrades ensured that the service and building was always up to modern standards, a tradition which Ukraine continued through the 1990s and into the 21 century
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