Korniakt Palace, Renaissance palace on Rynok Square, Lviv, Ukraine.
Korniakt Palace is a Renaissance townhouse at Rynok Square 6, built in 1580 by architect Piotr Barbon on the site of two Gothic houses. Its pale stone facade has a rusticated ground floor with three arches, a long wrought-iron balcony, and two upper rows of six windows under triangular pediments. Inside, a three-tier Italian courtyard with arcaded galleries remains, and a 15th-century Gothic hall survives from the earlier building.
Construction began around 1580 when Greek merchant Konstanty Korniakt commissioned architect Piotr Barbon to build this palace on the site of two Gothic houses, later becoming associated with Polish King Jan III Sobieski and his family.
The palace houses the Lviv History Museum's royal chambers, displaying Rococo furniture, silverware collections, medieval artifacts, and features the mysterious black armchair known as 'Satan's chair' alongside period musical instruments and European craftsmanship examples.
Visitors can explore the museum exhibitions year-round, attend summer concerts in the Italian courtyard, and view architectural details from the exterior while accessing guided tours that explain the building's transformation through different historical periods.
In the Italian courtyard stands a pranger, a stone pillar where criminals were publicly punished in the Middle Ages. The palace also keeps a Gothic hall, the only surviving example of 15th-century secular Gothic architecture in Ukraine. Since 1908 the building has housed the Lviv History Museum.
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