This summer, Lviv became a meeting place for nearly thirty young restorers, students, and graduates of art and architecture universities from across Ukraine — from Kharkiv and Odesa to Kyiv and Lviv. We collected their impressions, thoughts, and emotions, as they best convey the atmosphere of this school.
“One more time I realized this week that even the smallest intervention can have a great impact. And that restoration is always teamwork,” admits one participant, Kateryna.
Maria adds: “Restoration is not only about technique and painstaking work. It’s a way to discover the city’s culture and its art. For me, Lviv became a revelation: Art Nouveau in stairwells, layers of uncovered murals… it feels like touching the very heart of the city.”
For many, these days also became a time of personal support and recovery. Some returned home to Kharkiv region under shelling, but in Lviv they felt safe:
“This week of practice and restoration lectures was very important during the war. It gave me a chance to rest a little from the situation at home. Just yesterday, I arrived back home, and once again, there were terrible shellings.”
Many participants mentioned the value of direct contact with cultural monuments:
“I had the chance to see incredible Art Nouveau murals in real life and touch original works. As a painting restorer, this was an extremely important experience. It was fascinating to compare different schools of thought and to feel that we were working on a shared cause.”
One participant noted:
“When you talk to people, you realize some only see a building as private square meters. But when they watch an ornament come back to life, pride gradually appears for the place where they live. This proves: restoration doesn’t just change stone or paint — it changes attitudes.”
The Summer School in Lviv became possible thanks to the implementation of the international project “Art Nouveau as a New Eurotopia. How the Past Can Be a Bridge to a Sustainable Future”, funded by the Creative Europe program in cooperation with partners from the Réseau Art Nouveau Network (RANN). The project aims to research and promote Art Nouveau heritage, to reinterpret it through the lens of sustainable development, and to create new educational and cultural opportunities for young specialists in various European countries, including Ukraine.
For the city, this is particularly important. Restoration is no longer only a matter for professionals — it becomes a shared community value. And young restorers are those who, in the future, will shape a new vision of heritage protection, combining science, art, and civic consciousness.
The Summer School of Restoration in Lviv became not only an opportunity to gain knowledge but also to experience true co-creation with the city. It demonstrated that heritage is not a frozen museum exhibit but a living organism that can be restored and preserved. And also — that love for Lviv begins with the details: a stone flower, the restored face of a mascaron, or a colorful mural in a stairwell.
It is in these details that memory lives, and thanks to projects like this one, that memory continues to endure.
