Market Square (Ploshcha Rynok)

The hexagonal heart of the old town and the orientation point for almost anything you do in Ivano-Frankivsk. The square is ringed by Polish-Austrian townhouses in ochre, mustard and pale pink, with arcades and cafés at street level. In the middle stands the eighteenth-century Town Hall — taller than you expect, with a small museum at the top of its tower.

The square has been here since the city was founded in 1662 as Stanisławów, and the radial street grid Andrzej Potocki laid out then is largely intact. It functions today as the main place for outdoor cafés, a winter Christmas market, and (during the war) periodic memorials and pop-up bookstalls. Spend half an hour here at the start of any visit.

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A story
The square was laid out in 1662 by Andrzej Potocki — a Polish magnate — to plan for what was then a brand-new fortress town called Stanisławów. The hexagonal radial layout he commissioned, with six streets fanning out from the square, is still legible from the air and is unusual for an east-European town of this size.

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