The Mound of the Union of Lublin in Lviv was built on the hill of Vysoky Zamok, near the ruins of the brick castle from the second half of the 14th century, which used to be a royal fortress. The mound rises several metres above the natural height of the hill, and from its top there is a beautiful panorama of the centre of Lviv, the northern districts of Klepariv, Zamarstynov and Holoska, and the forested Kaiservald range.

Creation of the Union of Lublin Mound
The raising of the mound lasted several decades with numerous interruptions, resulting, among other things, from political disagreements, lack of funds to continue the work and technical problems related to inadequate protection of the structure. Franciszek Smolka and his colleagues initially used the nearby ruins of the High Castle as building material, largely destroying this valuable monument. However, thanks to the interventions of the first conservator of monuments in Lvov, Mieczyslaw Potocki, it was possible to save from destruction a fragment of one of the walls, which has survived to this day. In the years 1906-1908 the slopes and paths leading to the summit were reinforced, and this period should be considered the final phase of construction of the Lublin Union Mound.

Purpose of the construction of the mound of the Union of Lublin
. According to the plans of Franciszek Smolka, an outstanding Galician politician and Polish national activist, the mound of the Union of Lublin was to remind his compatriots of the times of the former splendour of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He intended the reference to the so-called Jagiellonian idea, i.e. the unification of free nations under Polish leadership, to be an impulse for the rebirth of the Polish state in defiance of the partitioning empires and in cooperation with the Lithuanians, Belarusians and Ukrainians.

On 11 August 1869, a ceremony organised by Smolka took place to lay the foundation stone, on which were engraved the coats of arms of Poland, Lithuania and Ruthenia and the inscription: "Free with free, equal with equal - Poland, Lithuania and Ruthenia, united by the Union of Lublin on 11 August 1569". The soil deposited on the cornerstone came from such symbolic places as the field of the Battle of Grunwald, the graves of Kościuszko, Mickiewicz, Słowacki and Lelewel, or the resting place of the 'Five Fallen' in the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.

Turbulent fate of the mound
The undertaking was not only an anniversary commemoration, but was also an important political event. Smolka was very keen to win Galician Ukrainians to the idea of laying the mound, but not all Ukrainian circles joined the initiative. Over the following decades, the rift between Poles and Ukrainians in Lviv grew, and by the turn of the 20th century the Union of Lublin Mound had become, in Ukrainian eyes - contrary to Smolka's initial intentions - a symbol of Polish domination over the city.

Above all, however, the Union of Lublin Mound permanently changed Lviv's landscape - thanks to Smolka's initiative, today one can admire the city's panorama from a height of more than 400 metres above sea level. After World War II, the slopes of the mound were overgrown with trees, so today it looks like an ordinary wooded hill, and its characteristic silhouette is best seen in pre-war photographs.