Excursion Golden Horseshoe Tour

Book our Golden Horseshoe Tour of Western Ukraine‘s Lviv Oblast, and visit area shtetl sites and tour the 16th Century castles of Olesko, PIdhirtsi, & Zolochiv – Spectacular remnants from the era of Poland’s Medieval Aristocracy, now turned into museums and art galleries.

Olesko.

As the first stop on our Privately Guided Western Ukraine – Golden Horseshoe Tour, Olesko Castle was, at different times, owned by Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary. It became a political landmark in the 14th century when movable borders between the three aforementioned countries ran through its territory and battles for control of the castle were rampant.  Late in the 15th Century the property became desirous for its remoteness as a getaway for the aristocracy and over time exchanged hands, ultimately owned by the Sobieskis and the Radziwills. The castle is perhaps most famous for being the birthplace of the Polish king Jan III Sobieski, the hero of the Battle of Vienna.  Currently Olesko Castle is one of Western Ukraine‘s most popular museums, displaying the collections of antique Polish furnishings and art dating from the 16th-17th centuries.

Pidhirtsi.

Pidhirtsi Castle is a residential castle-fortress located in the village of Pidhirtsi in Western Ukraine‘s Lviv Oblast. It was constructed by Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan between 1635–1640. The structure, built with brick and stone, was designed in the characteristic palazzo in fortezza style and built into the slope of the hill, hence its name pidhirtsi which transliterates to “under the hill“.

In its heyday under Jakub Ludwik Sobieski, the castle was richly furnished, with several halls and a library, and with gardens and parks around it. Today, it is part of the Lviv National Art Gallery.

Zolochiv.

Our final stop on your Golden Horseshoe Tour is at Zolochiv Castle.  The site was occupied from the late 12th Century under the name Radeche until the end of the 13th century when a wooden fort was constructed. In 1442, the site was founded as Zolochiv, by John of Sienna, a Polish nobleman and incorporated as a town in 1523, its castle subsequently becoming the property of several families of the Lithuanian and Polish aristocracies including the Sobieskis and Radziwills until 1834 when it was sold to the Austrian Habsburgs.  Zolochiv remained under Austrian rule as part of the semi-autonomous province of Galicia until the end of World War I.

Want more sightseeing excursions to the Medieval Castles of Western Ukraine?  Book our Castles of The North tour or our Castles of The East tour or our Kamianets-Podilskyi and Khotyn tour or all three!