Due to its favorable geographic position, Mukachevo was for desired by outsiders for centuries and constantly had to fight for the right of its ownership. As a result, the city changed hands several times over the course of its millennia-long history, becoming a part of Hungary, Austria, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, until it was passed to the Soviet Union and later - to independent Ukraine.
Each epoch not only changed the city`s ethnic composition, but also added inimitable features to its look. The history of Mukachevo can be seen in its architecture - medieval, Renaissance, Baroque... The majority of the city`s buildings survived since the times of Hungarian and Austrian rule.
Medieval castle`s walls, gothic basilicas, Baroque Catholic churches, ancient estates and pavements - all of these grant a unique beauty and atmosphere to Mukachevo, inviting visitors to walk into a true European fairy tale.
According to legends, one of the most beautiful and powerful castles in Ukraine was created by mystical forces together with a nearly 70-meter volcanic mountain. Castle Palanok towers over the city, striking with such immense grandeur that it is hard to believe that it was humans who founded and developed it.
City Hall is made in the Art Nouveau style, designed by the famous Hungarian architect Janos Granny Bush. Construction was completed in 1904. Since then, she serves as the administrative building. Today it houses the city council.
According to legend, the monastery was founded in the 11th century when the Hungarian King András I. Together with his wife Anastasia of Kiev in Transcarpathia came nuns of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery and founded a monastery in the caves on the mountainside.
It`s the most valuable sample of medieval Gothic and reckons among the most ancient cultic monuments in Transcarpathian region. The catholic cathedral appeared in the 14th century, when under Hungary rule the town started converting to new religion - Catholicism.
