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Section 1. Architecture
Rybchynskyi Oleh Valeriiovych, PhD of Architecture, associate professor of Lviv Polytechnic National University E-mail: [email protected]
Market square as the main expression of urbanity in Galician town
Abstract: The questions spatial composition, components ofpublic space, principles of development, conservation and regeneration of the market square in the Galician towns. Space of market places comfortable for private and public meetings, festivals, concerts and religious processions. Therefore, it is important to save the symbolic structure of the square that represents historical and cultural landscape of the city.
Keywords: market Square, spatial composition, public space, conservation, regeneration, Galician town.
An important part of the conclusion of the history of rate torhovytsya (a market place). In the 13th-14th century,
urban settlements of Ukraine is the study of their architectural heritage. Historically, that the center of the city is the formation of spatial market square. For science-based development master plan for the city, downtown revi-talization concepts, it is important to identify the main methods of forming the market square in the composition planning structure of Galician town. In order to fully appreciate the significance of market squares for the town, as defined urban system should be based on complex generalized intelligence. Important theoretical work, which revealed compositional structure of planning, historic towns created S. Kravtsov, G. Petryshyn, P. Rychkov, M. Bevz, C. Topylko, M. Kaplinska.
A market square is not only a trading place but also an aspect which distinguishes a Galician town from a village. According to modern scholars and contemporary accounts, "the market square with several Jewish buildings had a different qualification; especially in the Ukrainian settlement, it was distinguished by a separate part which was called a town or a borough." [6, 67] Thus, market squares became a main expression of urbanity in Galicia. Professor Serhiy Kravtsov, studying principles of regular town planning in Galicia, points out that "such elements of town planning as a market square and a defensive perimeter defined a settlement as a town which was endowed with special rights and which stood out against neighborhood" [3, 132]. Defined in space, the market square was a core of urban existence, a center of town universe and its annals.
The first public spaces of old Rus' towns comprised dytynets (a political and administrative center) and a sepa-
Galician towns had a noticeable tendency to merging of political-administrative and trading centers. This happened under the influence of development of commercial relations, political forms of management, science and craftsmanship. The first market squares had elongated triangular or rectangular shapes.
In the 15th-16th centuries, foundation and development of new towns based on the Magdeburg law could be seen. They were characterized by square shapes of central areas with a church located in the corner. In that time, in addition to a market square, public spaces in front of various confessions and ethnicities sacred places, located in ethnic quarters — Ukrainian, Armenian, Jewish, Tatar, Karaite, German and Scottish — were developed.
In the 17th century, despite the preserved system of management, the Magdeburg law, market squares acquire key spatial features. This concept was realized in Zhovk-va, Brody, Stanislaviv (now Ivano-Frankivsk), Kalush, Sasiv, Lyshniv, Stanislavchyk. In these towns, besides a market square, additional multi-functional places intended for trade of cattle, wood, salt etc were established. A town was divided into regular quarters where ethnic communities lived compactly. In that period, a market square was the center of vibrant urban development. Only the richest merchants and politicians could afford to live there. Consulates of foreign countries were located at market squares; international agreements were made and intrigues were carried on, truces were signed and wars were declared.
During the 18th-early 20th centuries market squares undergo fragmentary changes. Chaotic building was reg-
Section 1. Architecture
ulated, new buildings were constructed in place of old ones, town halls and other edifices were built up. Square's pavement and street light were changed too. A square acquires modern view and carries out social function in town life. After the ruin of WWI, market squares were rebuilt and continued functioning actively.
In the second half of the 20th century the majority of market squares were finally destroyed. They did not comply with new communist ideology and could not be a place for crowded demonstrations, rallies and parades. Fight with market squares finished with their decline, dismantlement of historical buildings, construction of new aggressive and untraditional buildings. In particular, distortion of market squares led to disappearance of town patriotism and deformation of town-dweller's identity. The majority of squares were given the name of Lenin and were decorated with figures of the leader. In 1990-s
squares got rid of their ideological coloring, and now
they are gradually reacquiring their former function of the main public place.
Market squares can be considered a palimpsest in which one can read various stories. Events that took place there had an important meaning for the state, region, town, community and individual. Comparison of these stories and events give an opportunity to outline correlations, discover similarities and define general tendencies.
Events that demonstrate religious variety and conflicts, social inequality and stage of economic development, radical changes of political traditions are associated with the chronicles of market squares. Various urban customs were associated with great Christian festivals. The political tradition was ruined in the second half of the 20th century. At that time the market square as the public space underwent serious destruction. In 1956 a project of a new main square of the town was incorporated in the city-plan of Lviv [7, 108]. There were serious grounds for the relocation of the main city square, since "the culture of the USSR of the late 1940-s was dominated by the tendency to convey the pathos of the victory in the war through artistic means. It was believed that the central areas of towns were to have appropriate space for official mass celebrations" [8, 31]. Unfortunately, market square of the other Galician cities and towns incurred very serious losses in terms of ideology and space. Thus the new political ideology sought to appropriate this space, make it its own and influence the community through it. Projects developed for Zhovkva, Kamyanka-Buzka, Krakivets, Horodok, Bibrka, Yaniv envisaged the use of historic market squares for the formation of the main town square [9, 33].
The market square was a place where various events were held including acts of administering ofjustice. Such events at the squares were associated with their space definition, namely a place of execution of a sentence as well as erection of a pillory or pranger [9, 131]. Public executions were carried out in order to foster humility and fear in the town community. They also sought to define the space of the market square with symbols in Drohobych. Thus "on 14 May, 1916 a stature of a Ukrainian knight was erected at the market square to mark the first anniversary of liberation of the town from the Russian troops. On holidays the guard of honour stood by the knight. The stature was there until the end of1918. In the Soviet time the sight was readjusted as a burial place and monument to a hero of the Soviet Union, major general I. V. Vasilyev" [6, 10]. It is a vivid example of perhaps the most cruel kind of war — the war for historic memory of a nation. Any event in the Soviet times was to be held under close supervision of the nation's leaders. Thus, "after the World War II a concrete monument to Lenin and Stalin, and later another one to Lenin, were built in front of the make entrance to the town hall. In 1980 another bronze and granite monument to Lenin was built. It lasted for ten years. On demand of the vast majority of Drohobych residents and according to a resolution of the town council session on 5 September 1990 the monument was dismantled" [5, 10].
The most pronounced spatial mark of the Lviv market square is the town hall. F. Yavorskyi wrote that "during the times of the Magdeburg law the town hall was a symbol of the whole city, a holy place of its management and justice" [2, 9]. The town hall at the market square was intended for a special purpose and fulfilled a distinct social function. It became a house of public use and was considered to be administrative, public and private. In Lviv and many other Galician towns re notable for unique compactness of the square as a public space, supplemented with a house for public us.
In addition to the town halls, market squares contained their own spatial accents, such as merchants' houses and shops, chapels and statues of saints, fountains and lanterns. They are still fragmentarily used as decorations at the squares in Lviv and Zhovkva. Unfortunately, they disappeared after WWII in the vast majority of towns and cities. Today, town hall towers are historic signs of the town public life.
Public zoning is associated with adaptation of specific places to events chosen independently by the community. The places are assigned not by the town authorities, they are formed by way of natural evolution. Yuriy Lotman
rightly noted in his analyses of the space that "culturally and architecturally, a space, developed by humans, is an active element of human conscience. The conscience, individual and collective (culture), is spatial. It develops in space and thinks in its categories. Thinking divorced from the created human semio-sphere (containing a landscape, created by culture,) simply does not exist" [4, 683]. From the beginning of the Lviv Market Square's planning to this date, its most active pedestrian communication axis is Krakivska-Halytska Streets' line (from Krakivskyi Gate to Halytskyi Gate). The northern part of the Market Square (territory of expensive goods) was an active trade zone at the times of the old town hall. Today, concerts, exhibitions and presentations are held here. In the past, the southern part of the square was intended for community gathering to hear decrees, sentences, watch executions, etc. Unfortunately, today, it is a dangerous zone for pedestrians due to the tram line. Meetings and family walks are usually conducted today in the western part is. This is also where open air cafes are located. The southern side of the Market Square at the central entrance to the town hall is most often used for actions ofpublic protest, official opening of the City Day and other state holidays celebration. For the last few years, here, in front of the town hall, the town Christmas stage has been erected, and carol singers and Christmas play performers gather around it; on Easter, eggs are painted and hung on the trees as decorations; in 2007, the action of painted lions was held.
The development of the space of the market squares is an important subject ofresearch, since it identifies the possibilities and prospects of their use for the needs of the community. The market squares of Galician towns were formed also under the influence of ethnic cultures concentrated around them. Each of these cul-
tures found its reflection in the architectural shape and economic application of the space. Along the perimeter of the Market Square Polish and Italian aristocratic communities of Lviv built palaces and richly decorated houses intended for official receptions and formation of the so-called "grand" culture. The "grand" culture included elements of the "small" one. "There were two cultural traditions in the early modern Europe, but they were not symmetrical reflections of the two main social groups, the elite and common people. The elite was part of the "small" tradition, whereas the common people were not part of the "grand" one. "The "grand" tradition was passed on formally, at schools and universities. It was closed in the sense that the people, who did not attend these institutions (access to which was exclusive) were cut off from it. They literally did not speak its language. The "small" tradition, on the other hand, was passed informally, was open to everyone like the Church, tavern and the market square, where so many different activities were carried out" [1, 29-30]. In Lviv and other towns of Galicia the division into the "small" and "grand" culture was not so clear; they not simply co-existed next to each other, but even were interweaved so that it was impossible to single out any of them.
One of the ways of restoration of the distorted town identity is the creation and development of projects of restoration of the Galician town's market square. The projects will help to identify the preserved and lost elements of the market squares. The long-term program of development of the town center will take into account the architectural specificities of the market squares' ensembles, detailed spatial zoning and the public function, historically established town traditions and rituals and political and everyday changes.
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