Zhovkva is a small town about 30 kilometres north of Lviv, built in the late 16th century as an ideal Renaissance city by the Polish hetman Stanislaw Zolkiewski. The planned layout is still clearly visible: a central market square with arcaded buildings, a castle, and churches arranged with a geometric precision unusual for Ukrainian towns.
The town's main attractions cluster around the Vichevyi Maidan (market square). Zhovkva Castle, built between 1594 and 1606, is being slowly restored and already looks impressive — a four-towered Renaissance structure that served as a residence for Polish kings including Jan III Sobieski, who made it his favourite retreat. St. Lawrence's Church nearby is the family mausoleum of the Żółkiewski and Sobieski dynasties, a refined Italian Mannerist building that feels transplanted from Krakow or Venice. The Holy Trinity Church, dating from 1720, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the "Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian Region" listing. Inside, the iconostasis is original and remarkably well-preserved.
The Great Synagogue, built around 1692 with royal patronage from King Jan III Sobieski himself, was one of the finest fortified synagogues in Eastern Europe. It was devastated during the Second World War and the Soviet era, but restoration work has been underway since Ukrainian independence, and the Renaissance structure is gradually being recovered.
Zhovkva makes an easy half-day trip from Lviv by marshrutka (minibus), which takes about 40 minutes. The town is quiet and largely unvisited by foreign tourists, which gives it an unhurried atmosphere that Lviv's old town has lost.