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The Olesky Castle situated 72 kilometres off Lviv is a notable monument of the 13th-18th cc. architecture. The first mention of the ancient Ukrainian fortress in the historical documents dates back to 1327. It is surmised that the castle was built by one of Daniil Galitsky's grand-grandsons - either by Prince Andrei or Prince Lev. However, archeological excavations testify to an earlier existence of the fortification. It may well have been founded on an impregnable marlaceous hill by refugees from Plisnesk-an old Ukrainian town which was ruined to the ground in 1241 by Baty-khan.
That was the time when the lands of old Rus were subjected to invasion not only by the Mongol and Tatar hordes but also by the Hungarian, Polish and Lithuanian feudals. In the middle of the 14th century the feudal Lithuania seized Volhynia. Poland occupied Galicia. Both slates now claimed the Olesky Castle bordering Volhynia and Galicia. Nearly for half a century the fortress remained impregnable for the Polish magnates. In 1431 the defense was headed by Ivashko Presluzhich of Rogatin, Olesko elderman who rallied numerous detachments out of residents of the adjoining lands. Yet, after a prolonged siege the forces of the Polish king Yagiello captured the castle in 1432. Thus the last stronghold of old Rus on the Galician lands fell in the fight against catholic and feudal domination. From that time on, the Olesko fortress was a residence of the magnate families.
The second half of the 15th-the first half of the 16th cc. were hard times for the inhabitants of Olesko. In 1442 and 1452 the town was swept by the Tatar horde. In 1512 the people of the neighboring villages again sought refuge behind the fortress walls. And then seven years later, the Tatar detachments again approached the castle walls.
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The 17th century was a period of most extensive reconstruction of the castle. It was Ivan Danilovich, Voivode of the Ukraine lands, who placed the construction work within and outside the fortress on a broad footing. Under him the castle acquired the forms typical of a residential building with traces of the Renaissance style. Another building was attached to it, new storey was added, and the entrance-tower superstructure was erected. The height of the walls in some places exceeded 10 meters. The present appearance of the castle retains much of that architectural form.
Ivan Danilovich laid the foundations of a small town of Sasiv, built a school and a hospital at Olesko. With him served Mikhail Khmel, the father of Bogdan Khmelnitsky.
In 1618, during the liberation war of the Ukrainian people led by B. Khmelnytskyj. Olesko was captured by the peasant-and-cossack detachments. Later, Ivan Danilovich's grandson, by that lime King Jan III Sobiesky of Poland, undertook the repairs in the castle and made it one of his summer residences.
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In the first half of the 18th century the castle's interiors underwent considerable remodeling, around the castle a park was laid out and adorned. Thus the ancient fortification acquired the shape of a palace. However, it did not last long because, following the death of Severin Rzewuski. The greatest values of Olesko were transported to the Podgoretsky castle, the palace at Olesko falling into decay. The earthquake of 18^S and the two world wars added to complete destruction of the edifice.
The working people of the Western Ukraine who after the golden September of 1939 became masters of the land and their own destiny, made o worthy use of the historical values. In 1955 work on reconstruction and restoration of the relic was started, and in 1969 - scientific re-establishment and remodeling was carried on to make the complex suited for an architecture-and-arts preserve museum. The Olesky Castle became a department of the Lviv Picture Gallery, a treasure-house where the restored and scientifically treated works of West-Ukrainian art of the 10th - 18 th. cc. are kept and displayed.
The exhibits of Hall 11 on the ground - floor trace the castle's history from the time of its foundation to the present day, describe the way restoration of the edifice was carried out.
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The first floor exposition displays works of painting, sculpture, applied arts, which include invaluable masterpieces of national culture. Most of the exhibits are on display for the first time.
The most ancient art is represented by archeological finds pertaining to the period of the Galicia-Volhynian Principality. Among them are ornamentation fragments of the 10th - 12th cc. stone architectural structures from Calich, Zvenigorod, Plisnesk, samples of the building material - plinths, ornamented ceramic tiles, etc. They testify to close relationship of Galician architecture with that of Kiev Rus.
The pieces of jewelry, glass-blowing and ornamental molding displayed in the exposition testify to immaculate skill and exquisite taste of the ancient Russian masters.
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The partially preserved architectural adornments and the original lay-out of the apartments made it possible to restore the 17th-18th cc. castle interiors in Halls 3, 6 and 7, and furnish them with pieces of art and woodwork typical of the period.
Hall 3 has some articles of the Renaissance furniture and two tapestries of the second half of the 16th century by the famous Brussels manufacture - "Odysseus" and "Polyphemus".
Hall 6 is embellished with a mantelpiece of black marble dating back to the second half of the 17th century. On either side are French tapestries of the early 18th century with scenes from "Metamorphoses" by Ovid. There is a bulky bronze chandelier dating from the same time. The interior is complemented with a family portrait gallery and splendid samples of the 17th-18th cc. oak furniture by Gdansk masters-
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An essential part of the exposition is works of the 16th-18th cc. They bear record to the making and development of West-Ukrainian art.
Hall 4 is devoted to icon-painting and sculpture of the 15th- 16th cc. In their works the talented artists tried to embody the popular concept of spiritual beauty deviating from the grim canons of ecclesiastical art; the subject-matter, though indirectly, revealed processes of social life and struggle ("The Holy Mother-Eleusa", "Saint Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa", "Doomsday", "Saint George, the Dragon Fighter"). The sculpture reveals interest in outer and inner man, his Individual features ("The Tombstone of Anna Sieniawska", 1574; "The Portrait of Barbara Radzivill">.
The propagation of humanistic ideas that pertained to the culmination of Renaissance in Western Europe, consolidation of national consciousness, progressive tendencies in the foundations of world outlook - all these radically influenced the advance of Ukrainian art in the second half of the 16th-the first half of the 17th cc. and, above all, the development of portrait painting. The images of Johann Gerburt, Stephan Batorey, Ivan Danilovlch, Jan Baranowski - these as well as some other earliest portraits preserved intact in the Ukraine feature the new world outlook, the new attitude to man, manifest the humanistic insight into man's role in human society,
The exposition of Hall 9 includes works of monumental-decorative art of the 17th century-altars, an iconostasis, a fragment of mural painting, also icons which formerly made up the adornments of ritual interiors. The realistic trend which gave rise to flourishing of portraiture is traced in penetration of every-day motifs, in treatment of the subject-matter and individual characters, their vividly emotional portrayal (17th century artist from Byely Kamen: "The Altar of Virgin Mary", "Fable of the Prodigal". 1689; "Saint Demetrius", l648; works by artists from Vishnya and Lviv).
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The 17th century was a period when not only portraiture but also battle-painting developed. Hall 10 displays a large multieffigy canvas by the prominent painter Martino Altomontc "The Battle at Vienna", 1692, which represents a scene of violent fight with the Turks. The work is executed in the style of fashionable European baroque compositions. The creative work of Altomonte, a battle-painter and portraitist, had great influence with Ukrainian artists of the period.
Many halls of the Museum display architectural pieces. Hall 11 is fully devoted to Lviv wooden sculpture of the 18th century, which reached the highest level of European baroque wood-carving. At that time about 50 talented masters of carving worked in Lviv which in the 50s became a most notable centre of sculptural art in Central Europe. Most celebrated among them were Sebastian Fessinger. Antony Osinski, Pinzel, Matsei Palejowski and Francishek Olendzki. Their art is represented in the Museum by separate works which are conspicuous for their dynamism and pathos, theatricality of gestures, expressiveness in conveying the ecstatically state of the characters.
The displayed sculptural pieces which are fragments of major monumental-decorative ensembles meant for adorning ritual buildings are arranged in the hall to the best advantage of their original perception.
Hall 12 and 13 expose painting, sculpture and applied arts of the 18th century - works by folk and professional artists. The popular picture "Cossack Mamai", the icon "The Crucifixion" from Kosmach "The Statue of Virdgin Mary" from the village of Ganovtsy suggest high standard of folk visual arts.
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Most popular of the 18th cc. secular painting was portraiture. The exposition includes the varieties of the genre: tombstone ("The Portrait of Anastasiya Knisovska" and "The Portrait of Woman with a String of Pearls"), epitaphic ("The Portrait of Maria Atendik", 1700); votive ("The Portrait of Ferenc Rakoczy II and His Wife Amalia Gessenska"); ceremonial (The Portrait of Nicholai Pototski") and a number of chamber partraits. The latter were executed by the prominent professional artists V. Petranovich, ("The Portrait of Lviv Archbishop N. Vizhitsky" a.o.). 0. Byelavsky ("The Portrait of K. Deyma" a. o.).
The 60s - 70s of the 18th century brought info being the peasant portraiture expressing new humanistic ideals- a phenomenon unique in the history of European art. It was an attempt to emphasize the greatest respect for man's personality, to show sympathy with common people. The exposition includes the earliest in the Ukraine portraits of peasants painted from life with great artistic skill: "The Portrait of Soika - Old Man of the Hospital" and "The Old Man with a Staff",
The Olesky Castle Museum which is a unique treasure-house as to the character and the artistic merits of its collection attracts a great number of visitors which approximates to 100 thousand a year. It has become a notable centre of aesthetic education of people and propagation of national successive culture.
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