The Synagogue of Lutsk is a monument of 17th-century Jewish religious architecture. Its distinctive feature is a defensive tower attached to the prayer hall, and a traditional sign of the time of its construction is a series of niches (loopholes) in the arched top of the entire structure.
The Synagogue was built under two privileges granted by King Sigismund III Vasa in 1626 and 1628, thanks to the efforts of the large Jewish community of Lutsk. An interesting condition was set by the king: the temple had to be lower than the Dominican church and perform defensive functions. It is thanks to this decision that the synagogue is a unique monument of sacred architecture.
The Synagogue was a powerful center of Jewish spirituality, education, and culture in Volhynia. Today, the Synagogue premises have been transferred to the Jewish community of the city.
Danylo Halytskyi street, 33
We invite you to visit the main tourist site of Lutsk – a medieval castle of the XIV century. It won first place in the category “castles” of the All-Ukrainian competition “Seven Wonders of Ukraine: castles, palaces, fortresses”.
Mision of the museum is to create museum institution of the highest level that changes past, reflects present and creates future to develop the nation spirituality and promote Ukrainian art in the world. Here you can see the largest painting in the world – “Cosmogony”, covering an area of over 2000 square meters.
The Chortoryiski princes Tower is the only one of the 8 towers of the Lutsk Lower (Okolnyi) Castle that has survived to this day. The Museum space «Okolnyi Castle» is a modern historical part of the defensive structure of Lutsk from the 14th – 17th centuries. The Upper Lutsk Castle was rebuilt from wooden fortifications to stone ones between the late 14th and 15th centuries. The first line of defensive of the Upper Castle, the Okolnyi Castle, began its transformation in the early 16th century, when wooden towers were gradually replaced with stone structures.
In addition to the above-ground city, Lutsk has an extensive network of underground tunnels. The two levels of the underground city housed sacred objects, a refectory, a prison, and tombs. There are many legends about the unique two-level underground complex, the entrance to which is located beneath the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul. Their height is particularly impressive, reaching almost 8 meters in some places.
Lutheran church (now Baptist) in Lutsk an architectural monument, located on Karaimska Street, 1 in the State Historical and Cultural Reserve “Old Lutsk”.
The Museum Space «Okolnyi Castle» is a new tourist attraction created on the basis of restored architectural monuments of national importance: the Chortoryiski princes tower with part of the defensive wall and the Jesuit Monastery with its dungeons.
