Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in
western Ukraine
Western Ukraine or West Ukraine ( uk, Західна Україна, Zakhidna Ukraina or , ) is the territory of Ukraine linked to the former Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, which was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austria ...
, and the
seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of
Lviv Oblast
Lviv Oblast ( uk, Льві́вська о́бласть, translit=Lvivska oblast, ), also referred to as Lvivshchyna ( uk, Льві́вщина, ), ). The name of each oblast is a wikt:Appendix:Glossary#relational, relational adjective—in Englis ...
and
Lviv Raion
Lviv Raion ( uk, Львівський район) is a raion (district) of Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. It was created in July 2020 as part of the reform of administrative divisions of Ukraine. The center of the raion is the city of Lviv. Four abolished ...
, and is one of the main
cultural centres of Ukraine. It was named in honour of
Leo, the eldest son of
Daniel
Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength" ...
,
King of Ruthenia
King of Ruthenia, King of Rus', King of Galicia and Lodomeria, Land of Ruthenia Lord and Heir (Ukrainian: ''Король Русі'', ''король Галичини і Володимирії'', ''князь і володар Всієї Землі ...
.
Lviv emerged as the centre of the historical regions of
Red Ruthenia
Red Ruthenia or Red Rus' ( la, Ruthenia Rubra; '; uk, Червона Русь, Chervona Rus'; pl, Ruś Czerwona, Ruś Halicka; russian: Червонная Русь, Chervonnaya Rus'; ro, Rutenia Roșie), is a term used since the Middle Ages fo ...
and
Galicia in the
14th century
As a means of recording the passage of time, the 14th century was a century lasting from 1 January 1301 ( MCCCI), to 31 December 1400 ( MCD). It is estimated that the century witnessed the death of more than 45 million lives from political and n ...
, superseding
Halych
Halych ( uk, Га́лич ; ro, Halici; pl, Halicz; russian: Га́лич, Galich; german: Halytsch, ''Halitsch'' or ''Galitsch''; yi, העליטש) is a historic city on the Dniester River in western Ukraine. The city gave its name to the P ...
,
Chełm
Chełm (; uk, Холм, Kholm; german: Cholm; yi, כעלם, Khelm) is a city in southeastern Poland with 60,231 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is located to the south-east of Lublin, north of Zamość and south of Biała Podlaska, some ...
,
Belz
Belz ( uk, Белз; pl, Bełz; yi, בעלז ') is a small city in Lviv Oblast of Western Ukraine, near the border with Poland, located between the Solokiya river (a tributary of the Bug River) and the Richytsia stream. Belz hosts the administ ...
and
Przemyśl
Przemyśl (; yi, פשעמישל, Pshemishl; uk, Перемишль, Peremyshl; german: Premissel) is a city in southeastern Poland with 58,721 inhabitants, as of December 2021. In 1999, it became part of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship; it was pr ...
. It was the capital of the
Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia
, conventional_long_name = Principality of Galicia–VolhyniaKingdom of Galicia–Volhynia
, common_name = Galicia–Volhynia
, status = Vassal state of the Golden Horde (from 1246)
, era = Middle Ages
, year_start = 1199
, year_end = 1349
, ...
from 1272 to 1349, when it was conquered by King
Casimir III the Great
Casimir III the Great ( pl, Kazimierz III Wielki; 30 April 1310 – 5 November 1370) reigned as the King of Poland from 1333 to 1370. He also later became King of Ruthenia in 1340, and fought to retain the title in the Galicia-Volhynia Wars. He w ...
of Poland. From 1434, it was the regional capital of the
Ruthenian Voivodeship
The Ruthenian Voivodeship (Latin: ''Palatinatus russiae'', Polish: ''Województwo ruskie'', Ukrainian: ''Руське воєводство'', romanized: ''Ruske voievodstvo''), also called Rus’ voivodeship, was a voivodeship of the Crown of ...
in the
Kingdom of Poland
The Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Królestwo Polskie; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a state in Central Europe. It may refer to:
Historical political entities
*Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom existing from 1025 to 1031
*Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom exist ...
. In 1772, after the
First Partition of Poland, the city became the capital of the Habsburg
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria,, ; pl, Królestwo Galicji i Lodomerii, ; uk, Королівство Галичини та Володимирії, Korolivstvo Halychyny ta Volodymyrii; la, Rēgnum Galiciae et Lodomeriae also known as ...
. In 1918, for a short time, it was the capital of the
West Ukrainian People's Republic
The West Ukrainian People's Republic (WUPR) or West Ukrainian National Republic (WUNR), known for part of its existence as the Western Oblast of the Ukrainian People's Republic, was a short-lived polity that controlled most of Eastern Gali ...
. Between the wars, the city was the centre of the
Lwów Voivodeship
Lwów Voivodeship ( pl, Województwo lwowskie) was an administrative unit of interwar Poland (1918–1939). Because of the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland in accordance with the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, it became occupied by both the Wehr ...
in the
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
. After the German-Soviet
invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...
in 1939, Lviv became part of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
.
The once large Jewish community was sharply reduced in number by the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
during
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
. For decades there was no working synagogue in the city after the final one
was closed by the Soviets. The once predominant Polish population was for the greatest part sent to Poland in the context of a
population exchange between Poland and Soviet Ukraine
The population exchange between Poland and Soviet Ukraine at the end of World War II was based on a treaty signed on 9 September 1944 by the Ukrainian SSR with the newly-formed Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN). The exchange stipulat ...
in 1944–46.
The historical heart of the city, with its cobblestone streets and architectural assortment of
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
,
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
,
Neo-classicism
Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative
Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, ...
and
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
, survived Soviet and German occupations during World War II largely unscathed. Due to its Mediterranean aura, many
Soviet movies set in places like
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
or
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
were actually shot in Lviv.
[Hermann Simon, Irene Stratenwerth, Ronald Hinrichs (Hrsg.): ''Lemberg. Eine Reise nach Europa.'' ] In 1991, Lviv became part of the independent nation of Ukraine.
The city has many industries and institutions of
higher education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...
such as
Lviv University
The University of Lviv ( uk, Львівський університет, Lvivskyi universytet; pl, Uniwersytet Lwowski; german: Universität Lemberg, briefly known as the ''Theresianum'' in the early 19th century), presently the Ivan Franko Na ...
and
Lviv Polytechnic
Lviv Polytechnic National University ( ua, Націона́льний університе́т «Льві́вська політе́хніка») is the largest scientific university in Lviv, Ukraine. Since its foundation in 1816, it has bee ...
. Lviv is also the home of many cultural institutions, including a philharmonic orchestra and the
Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet
The Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet ( uk, Львівський Національний академічний театр опери та балету імені Соломії Крушельницької ...
. The
historic city centre is on the
UNESCO World Heritage List
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
.
Names and symbols
The city of Lviv ( uk, Львів ) is also historically known as russian: Львов, Lvov , pl, Lwów , german: Lemberg , '' yi, Lemberik'' ''(לעמבעריק)'' as well as
a number of other names.
The
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
, the banner of the Lviv City Council and the logo are the officially approved symbols of Lviv. The names or images of architectural and historical monuments are also considered symbols of the city by the Statute of Lviv.
![Lwów CoA 1526](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Lw%C3%B3w_CoA_1526.png)
Lviv's modern coat of arms is based on the coat of arms from the city seal from the middle of the 14th century—a stone gate with three towers, in the opening of the gate of which walks a golden lion. Lviv's large coat of arms is a shield with the coat of arms of the city, crowned with a silver city crown with three edges, held by a lion and an ancient warrior.
Lviv's flag is a blue square banner with the city emblem image and yellow and blue triangles at the edges.
Lviv's logo is an image of five colorful towers in Lviv and the slogan "Lviv — open to the world" under them. The Latin phrase ''
Semper fidelis
''Semper fidelis'' () is a Latin phrase that means "always faithful" or "always loyal" (Fidelis or Fidelity). It is the motto of the United States Marine Corps, usually shortened to Semper Fi. It is also in use as a motto for towns, families, ...
'' (Always True) was used as a motto on the former coat of arms of 1936–1939, but was no longer used after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Geography
![Lviv City, Ukraine, Sentinel-2 satellite image, 30-AUG-2017](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Lviv_City%2C_Ukraine%2C_Sentinel-2_satellite_image%2C_30-AUG-2017.jpg)
Lviv is on the edge of the
Roztochia Upland
Roztocze ( uk, Розточчя, ''Roztochia'') is a range of hills in east-central Poland and western Ukraine which rises from the Lublin Upland and extends southeastward through Solska Forest and across the border into Ukrainian Podolia. Low and ...
, about 70 kilometres (43 miles) east of Polish border and 160 km (99 mi) north of the eastern
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...
. The average altitude of Lviv is 296 metres (971 feet) above
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...
. Its highest point is the ''Vysokyi Zamok'' (
High Castle), 409 meters (1342 feet)
above sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''.
The comb ...
. This castle has a commanding view of the historic city centre with its distinctive green-domed churches and intricate architecture.
The old
walled city
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...
was at the foothills of the High Castle on the banks of the
Poltva River
The Poltva (; pl, Pełtew) is a river in the western Ukrainian Oblast of Lviv and a tributary of the Bug. The Poltva valley cuts between the Podilian Plateau and Roztichia. The capital of the Lviv Oblast, Lviv, is located on the river, with t ...
. In the 13th century, the river was used to transport goods. In the early 20th century, the Poltva was covered over in areas where it flows through the city; the river flows directly beneath Lviv's central street, Freedom Avenue (''Prospect Svobody''), and the
Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet
The Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet ( uk, Львівський Національний академічний театр опери та балету імені Соломії Крушельницької ...
.
Climate
Lviv's climate is
humid continental
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...
(
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
''Dfb'') with cold winters and warm summers. The average temperatures are in January and in July.
The average annual rainfall is with the maximum in summer.
Mean
sunshine duration
Sunshine duration or sunshine hours is a climatological indicator, measuring duration of sunshine in given period (usually, a day or a year) for a given location on Earth, typically expressed as an averaged value over several years. It is a gene ...
per year at Lviv is about 1,804 hours.
History
Archaeologists
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
have demonstrated that the Lviv area was settled by the fifth century, with the gord at
Chernecha Hora-Voznesensk Street in
Lychakivskyi District
Lychakivskyi District ( uk, Личаківський район) is an urban district of the city of Lviv, named after the historical district of Lychakiv. This district covers eastern part of the city. It contains such neighborhoods as Mayorivka, ...
attributed to
White Croats
White Croats ( hr, Bijeli Hrvati; pl, Biali Chorwaci; cz, Bílí Chorvati; uk, Білі хорвати, Bili khorvaty), or simply known as Croats, were a group of Early Slavic tribes who lived among other West and East Slavic tribes in the are ...
.
The city of Lviv was founded in 1250 by King
Daniel of Galicia
Daniel of Galicia ( uk, Данило Романович (Галицький), Danylo Romanovych (Halytskyi); Old Ruthenian: Данило Романовичъ, ''Danylo Romanovyčъ''; pl, Daniel I Romanowicz Halicki; 1201 – 1264) was a King ...
(1201–1264) in the
Principality of Halych
The Principality of Halych ( uk, Галицьке князівство, translit=Halytske kniazivstvo; rus, Галицкое княжество; orv, Галицкоє кънѧжьство; ro, Cnezatul Galiția), or Principality of Halychian Ru ...
of
Kingdom of Ruthenia
Kingdom commonly refers to:
* A monarchy ruled by a king or queen
* Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy
Kingdom may also refer to:
Arts and media Television
* ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...
and named in honour of his son
Lev
Lev may refer to:
Common uses
*Bulgarian lev, the currency of Bulgaria
*an abbreviation for Leviticus, the third book of the Hebrew Bible and the Torah
People and fictional characters
*Lev (given name)
*Lev (surname)
Places
*Lev, Azerbaijan, a ...
as Lvihorod which is consistent with names of other Ukrainian cities, such as
Myrhorod
Myrhorod ( uk, Ми́ргород, ) is a city in the Poltava Oblast (province) of central Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Myrhorod Raion (district), the city itself is administratively incorporated as a city of oblast s ...
,
Sharhorod
Sharhorod (; , ), also known as Shargorod, is a town located within the Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Sharhorod Raion, one of 33 regions of Vinnytsia Oblast. Population:
History
Early history
Sharhorod was ...
,
Novhorod,
Bilhorod
Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi ( uk, Бі́лгород-Дністро́вський, Bílhorod-Dnistróvskyy, ; ro, Cetatea Albă), historically known as Akkerman ( tr, Akkerman) or under different names, is a city, municipality and port situated on ...
,
Horodyshche
Horodyshche ( uk, Городище, ; yi, האָרעדישטש, Horedishtsh) is a city located in Cherkasy Raion of Cherkasy Oblast (province) in central Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Horodyshche urban hromada, one of the hromadas of ...
, and
Horodok.
![Lev Danylovich of Halych](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Lev_Danylovich_of_Halych.PNG)
Earlier there was a settlement in the form of a borough with a characteristic layout element—an elongated market square. Daniel's foundation of the stronghold was its next reconstruction after the
Batu Khan
Batu Khan ( – 1255),, ''Bat haan'', tt-Cyrl, Бату хан; ; russian: хан Баты́й was a Mongol ruler and founder of the Golden Horde, a constituent of the Mongol Empire. Batu was a son of Jochi, thus a grandson of Genghis Khan. ...
invasion of 1240.
Lviv was
invaded
An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...
by the
Mongols
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...
in 1261.
[''Meyers Konversations-Lexikon''. 6th edition, vol. 12, Leipzig and Vienna 1908, p. 397-398.] Various sources relate the events, which range from the destruction of the castle to a complete razing of the town. All sources agree that it was on the orders of the Mongol general
Burundai Boroldai (or Burulday, Borolday), also known as Burundai, (Cyrillic: ''Боролдай'') (died 1262) was a notable Mongol general of the mid 13th century. He participated in the Mongol invasion of Russia and Europe in 1236-1242.
The clan of Borol ...
. The Shevchenko Scientific Society (''Naukove tovarystvo im. Shevchenka'') says that Burundai reduced the order to raze the city. The Galician-Volhynian chronicle states that in 1261 "Said Buronda to Vasylko: 'Since you are at peace with me then raze all your castles'".
Basil Dmytryshyn states that the order was implied to be the fortifications as a whole: "If you wish to have peace with me, then destroy
ll fortifications of
Ll/ll is a digraph that occurs in several languages
English
In English, often represents the same sound as single : . The doubling is used to indicate that the preceding vowel is (historically) short, or that the "l" sound is to be extended l ...
your towns".
According to the ''Universal-Lexicon der Gegenwart und Vergangenheit'' the town's founder was ordered to destroy the town himself.
[''Universal-Lexikon der Gegenwart und Vergangenheit'' (edited by H. A. Pierer). 2nd edition, vol. 17, Altenburg 1843, pp. 343–344.]
After Daniel's death, King Lev rebuilt the town around 1270 at its present location, choosing Lviv as his residence,
and made it the capital of Galicia-Volhynia. The city is first mentioned in the
Halych-Volhynian Chronicle regarding the events that were dated 1256. The town grew quickly due to an influx of
Polish people
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Cen ...
from
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
, Poland, after they had suffered a widespread famine there.
Around 1280
Armenians
Armenians ( hy, հայեր, ''hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diaspora ...
lived in
Galicia and were mainly based in Lviv where they had their own
Archbishop
In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
.
In the 13th and early 14th centuries, Lviv was largely a wooden city, except for its several stone churches. Some of them, like the Church of Saint Nicholas, have survived, although in a thoroughly rebuilt form. The town was inherited by the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...
in 1340 and ruled by
voivode
Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the me ...
Dmytro Dedko
Dmytro Dedko (''Demetrius Dedko'', uk, Дмитро Дедько) was a Lord of Ruthenia in 1340 (1323) – 1349. Commonly thought to be a Galician boyar, he could be one of sons of Yuriy I and Varvara (Barbara). Dmytro is possibly the prog ...
, the favourite of the Lithuanian prince
Liubartas
Demetrius of Liubar or Liubartas (also ''Lubart'', ''Lubko'', ''Lubardus'', baptized ''Dmitry''; died ) was Prince of Lutsk and Liubar (Volhynia) (1323–1383), Prince of Zhytomyr (1363–1374), Grand Prince of Volhynia (1340–1383), Grand Princ ...
, until 1349.
The region and the region adjacent to Lviv, Leopold, Poland, was a destination of 50,000 Armenians fleeing from the Saljuq and Mongol invasions of Armenia.
Galicia–Volhynia Wars
During the
wars over the succession of Galicia-Volhynia Principality in 1339 King
Casimir III of Poland
Casimir III the Great ( pl, Kazimierz III Wielki; 30 April 1310 – 5 November 1370) reigned as the King of Poland from 1333 to 1370. He also later became King of Ruthenia in 1340, and fought to retain the title in the Galicia-Volhynia Wars. He wa ...
undertook an expedition and conquered Lviv in 1340, burning down the
old princely castle.
Poland ultimately gained control over Lviv and the adjacent region in 1349. From then on the population was subjected to attempts to both
Polonize and
Catholicize the population. The
Lithuanians
Lithuanians ( lt, lietuviai) are a Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another million or two make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Uni ...
ravaged Lviv land in 1351 during the
Halych-Volhyn Wars with Lviv being plundered and destroyed by Prince Liubartas in 1353.
Casimir built a new city center (or founded a new town) in a basin, surrounded it by walls, and replaced the wooden palace by masonry castle – one of the two built by him.
The old (Ruthenian) settlement, after it had been rebuilt, became known as the Krakovian Suburb.
Kingdom of Poland
![Lviv High Castle (Engraving)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Lviv_High_Castle_%28Engraving%29.jpg)
In 1349, the
Kingdom of Ruthenia
Kingdom commonly refers to:
* A monarchy ruled by a king or queen
* Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy
Kingdom may also refer to:
Arts and media Television
* ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...
with its capital Lviv was annexed by the
Crown of the Kingdom of Poland
The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Korona Królestwa Polskiego; Latin: ''Corona Regni Poloniae''), known also as the Polish Crown, is the common name for the historic Late Middle Ages territorial possessions of the King of Poland, includ ...
. The kingdom was transformed into the Ruthenian domain of the Crown with Lwów as the capital. On 17 June 1356 King
Casimir III the Great
Casimir III the Great ( pl, Kazimierz III Wielki; 30 April 1310 – 5 November 1370) reigned as the King of Poland from 1333 to 1370. He also later became King of Ruthenia in 1340, and fought to retain the title in the Galicia-Volhynia Wars. He w ...
granted it
Magdeburg rights
Magdeburg rights (german: Magdeburger Recht; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within ...
, which implied that all city matters were to be resolved by a council elected by the wealthy citizens. In 1362, the
High Castle was completely rebuilt with stone replacing the previous wood. In 1358, the city became a seat of
Roman Catholic Archdiocese, which initiated the spread of
Latin Church
, native_name_lang = la
, image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg
, imagewidth = 250px
, alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran
, caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...
onto the Ruthenian lands.
After Casimir had died in 1370, he was succeeded as king of Poland by his nephew, King
Louis I of Hungary
Louis I, also Louis the Great ( hu, Nagy Lajos; hr, Ludovik Veliki; sk, Ľudovít Veľký) or Louis the Hungarian ( pl, Ludwik Węgierski; 5 March 132610 September 1382), was King of Hungary and Croatia from 1342 and King of Poland from 1370 ...
, who in 1372 put Lwów together with the region of
Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia
, conventional_long_name = Principality of Galicia–VolhyniaKingdom of Galicia–Volhynia
, common_name = Galicia–Volhynia
, status = Vassal state of the Golden Horde (from 1246)
, era = Middle Ages
, year_start = 1199
, year_end = 1349
, ...
under the administration of his relative
Vladislaus II of Opole
Vladislaus II of Opole ( pl, Władysław Opolczyk, german: Wladislaus von Oppeln, hu, Oppelni László, uk, Владислав Опольчик; ca. 1332 – 18 May 1401), nicknamed Naderspan, was Duke of Opole from 1356, Count palatine of Hu ...
, Duke of Opole.
When in 1387 Władysław retreated from the post of its governor, Galicia-Volhynia became occupied by the
Hungarians
Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Urali ...
, but soon
Jadwiga
Jadwiga (; diminutives: ''Jadzia'' , ''Iga'') is a Polish feminine given name. It originated from the old German feminine given name ''Hedwig'' (variants of which include ''Hedwiga''), which is compounded from ''hadu'', "battle", and ''wig'', "figh ...
, the youngest daughter of Louis, but also the ruler of Poland and wife of King of Poland
Władysław II Jagiełło
Jogaila (; 1 June 1434), later Władysław II Jagiełło ()He is known under a number of names: lt, Jogaila Algirdaitis; pl, Władysław II Jagiełło; be, Jahajła (Ягайла). See also: Names and titles of Władysław II Jagiełło. w ...
, unified it directly with the
Crown of the Kingdom of Poland
The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Korona Królestwa Polskiego; Latin: ''Corona Regni Poloniae''), known also as the Polish Crown, is the common name for the historic Late Middle Ages territorial possessions of the King of Poland, includ ...
.
The city's prosperity during the following centuries is owed to the trade privileges granted to it by Casimir, King
Jadwiga
Jadwiga (; diminutives: ''Jadzia'' , ''Iga'') is a Polish feminine given name. It originated from the old German feminine given name ''Hedwig'' (variants of which include ''Hedwiga''), which is compounded from ''hadu'', "battle", and ''wig'', "figh ...
and the subsequent Polish monarchs.
Germans, Poles and Czechs formed the largest groups of newcomers. Most of the settlers were
polonised by the end of the 15th century, and the city became a Polish island surrounded by
Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...
Ruthenian population.
![Sluby Jana Kazimierza 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Sluby_Jana_Kazimierza_2.jpg)
In 1412, the local archdiocese has developed into the
Roman Catholic Metropolis, which since 1375 as diocese had been in
Halych
Halych ( uk, Га́лич ; ro, Halici; pl, Halicz; russian: Га́лич, Galich; german: Halytsch, ''Halitsch'' or ''Galitsch''; yi, העליטש) is a historic city on the Dniester River in western Ukraine. The city gave its name to the P ...
.
The new metropolis included regional diocese in Lwów,
Przemyśl
Przemyśl (; yi, פשעמישל, Pshemishl; uk, Перемишль, Peremyshl; german: Premissel) is a city in southeastern Poland with 58,721 inhabitants, as of December 2021. In 1999, it became part of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship; it was pr ...
,
Chełm
Chełm (; uk, Холм, Kholm; german: Cholm; yi, כעלם, Khelm) is a city in southeastern Poland with 60,231 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is located to the south-east of Lublin, north of Zamość and south of Biała Podlaska, some ...
,
Włodzimierz,
Łuck
Lutsk ( uk, Луцьк, translit=Lutsk}, ; pl, Łuck ; yi, לוצק, Lutzk) is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the Capital city, administrative center of the Volyn Oblast (oblast, province) and the administrative center o ...
,
Kamieniec, as well as
Siret
Siret (; german: Sereth; hu, Szeretvásár; uk, Серет, Seret; yi, סערעט, Seret) is a town, municipality and former Latin bishopric in Suceava County, northeastern Romania. It is situated in the historical region of Bukovina. Siret is ...
and
Kijów (see
Old Cathedral of St. Sophia, Kyiv
The Old Cathedral of St. Sophia ( pl, Katedra św. Zofii w Kijowie, la, Sancta Sophia, Capitulo et Canonicis Cathedralis Ecclesiae Kioviencis ) also called Catholic Cathedral of St. Sophia is the name given to a Catholic cathedral that was in t ...
). The first Catholic Archbishop who resided in Lwów was Jan Rzeszowski.
In 1434, the Ruthenian domain of the Crown was transformed into the
Ruthenian Voivodeship
The Ruthenian Voivodeship (Latin: ''Palatinatus russiae'', Polish: ''Województwo ruskie'', Ukrainian: ''Руське воєводство'', romanized: ''Ruske voievodstvo''), also called Rus’ voivodeship, was a voivodeship of the Crown of ...
. In 1444, the city was granted the
staple right
The staple right, also translated stacking right or storage right, both from the Dutch ''stapelrecht'', was a medieval right accorded to certain ports, the staple ports. It required merchant barges or ships to unload their goods at the port and to ...
, which resulted in its growing prosperity and wealth, as it became one of the major trading centres on the merchant routes between
Central Europe
Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...
and
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...
region. It was also transformed into one of the main fortresses of the kingdom, and was a royal city, like
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
or
Gdańsk
Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...
. During the 17th century, Lwów was the second largest city of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...
, with a population of about 30,000.
In 1572, one of the first publishers of books in what is now Ukraine,
Ivan Fedorov, a graduate of the
University of Kraków
The Jagiellonian University ( Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...
, settled here for a brief period. The city became a significant centre for
Eastern Orthodoxy
Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism.
Like the Pentarchy of the first m ...
with the establishment of an Orthodox brotherhood, a Greek-Slavonic school and a printer which published the first full versions of the Bible in
Church Slavonic
Church Slavonic (, , literally "Church-Slavonic language"), also known as Church Slavic, New Church Slavonic or New Church Slavic, is the conservative Slavic liturgical language used by the Eastern Orthodox Church in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzeg ...
in 1580. A
Jesuit Collegium was founded in 1608, and on 20 January 1661 King
John II Casimir
John II Casimir ( pl, Jan II Kazimierz Waza; lt, Jonas Kazimieras Vaza; 22 March 1609 – 16 December 1672) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1648 until his abdication in 1668 as well as titular King of Sweden from 1648 ...
of Poland issued a decree granting it "the honour of the academy and the title of the university".
The 17th century brought invading armies of
Swedes
Swedes ( sv, svenskar) are a North Germanic ethnic group native to the Nordic region, primarily their nation state of Sweden, who share a common ancestry, culture, history and language. They mostly inhabit Sweden and the other Nordic countr ...
,
Hungarians
Hungarians, also known as Magyars ( ; hu, magyarok ), are a nation and ethnic group native to Hungary () and historical Hungarian lands who share a common culture, history, ancestry, and language. The Hungarian language belongs to the Urali ...
,
[Tony Jaques. ''Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A Guide to 8,500 Battles from Antiquity through the Twenty-First Century'', Vol. 3. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2007. pp. 608, 895, 951] Turks
Turk or Turks may refer to:
Communities and ethnic groups
* Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages
* Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation
* Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic o ...
,
Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
and
Cossacks
The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...
to its gates. In 1648 an army of
Cossacks
The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...
and
Crimean Tatars
, flag = Flag of the Crimean Tatar people.svg
, flag_caption = Flag of Crimean Tatars
, image = Love, Peace, Traditions.jpg
, caption = Crimean Tatars in traditional clothing in front of the Khan's Palace
...
besieged the town. They captured the
High Castle, murdering its defenders. The city itself was not sacked due to the fact that the leader of the revolution
Bohdan Khmelnytsky
Bohdan Zynovii Mykhailovych Khmelnytskyi ( Ruthenian: Ѕѣнові Богданъ Хмелнiцкiи; modern ua, Богдан Зиновій Михайлович Хмельницький; 6 August 1657) was a Ukrainian military commander and ...
accepted a ransom of 250,000 ducats, and the Cossacks marched north-west towards
Zamość
Zamość (; yi, זאמאשטש, Zamoshtsh; la, Zamoscia) is a historical city in southeastern Poland. It is situated in the southern part of Lublin Voivodeship, about from Lublin, from Warsaw. In 2021, the population of Zamość was 62,021.
...
. It was one of two major cities in Poland which was not captured during the so-called
''Deluge'': the other one was
Gdańsk
Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...
(Danzig).
At that time, Lwów witnessed a historic scene, as here King
John II Casimir
John II Casimir ( pl, Jan II Kazimierz Waza; lt, Jonas Kazimieras Vaza; 22 March 1609 – 16 December 1672) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1648 until his abdication in 1668 as well as titular King of Sweden from 1648 ...
made his famous
Lwów Oath
The Lwów Oath ( pl, Śluby lwowskie) was an oath made on April 1, 1656 by Polish king John II Casimir in Latin cathedral in the city of Lwów (today Lviv, western Ukraine).
Background
During "the Deluge", when the Swedish armies invaded Polis ...
. On 1 April 1656, during a holy mass in Lwów's Cathedral, conducted by the
papal legate
300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the pope's legate.
A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title ''legatus'') is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic ...
Pietro Vidoni
Pietro Vidoni (8 November 1610 – 5 January 1681) was an Italian Cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal who served from 1652 to 1660 as the papal legate and nuncio to Poland.
Personal life
Vidoni was born 8 November 1610 in Cremona into Italian nobili ...
, John Casimir in a grandiose and elaborate ceremony entrusted the Commonwealth under the Blessed Virgin Mary's protection, whom he announced as ''The Queen of the Polish Crown and other of his countries''. He also swore to ''protect the Kingdom's folk from any impositions and unjust bondage''.
![Львов 1618 АГогенберг](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/%D0%9B%D1%8C%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B2_1618_%D0%90%D0%93%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B1%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B3.jpg)
Two years later, John Casimir, in honour of the bravery of its residents, declared Lwów to be equal to two historic capitals of the Commonwealth, Kraków and
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
. In the same year, 1658,
Pope Alexander VII
Pope Alexander VII ( it, Alessandro VII; 13 February 159922 May 1667), born Fabio Chigi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 April 1655 to his death in May 1667.
He began his career as a vice- papal legate, an ...
declared the city to be
Semper fidelis
''Semper fidelis'' () is a Latin phrase that means "always faithful" or "always loyal" (Fidelis or Fidelity). It is the motto of the United States Marine Corps, usually shortened to Semper Fi. It is also in use as a motto for towns, families, ...
, in recognition of its key role in defending Europe and Roman Catholicism from Muslim invasion.
In 1672 it was surrounded by the
Ottomans
The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922).
Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...
who also failed to conquer it. Three years later, the
Battle of Lwów (1675)
Battle of Lwów or Battle of Lesienice or Battle of Lviv refers to a battle between the armies of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
and Ottoman Empire that took place near the city of Lwów (Lviv, western Ukraine) on August 24, 1675.
History Befo ...
took place near the city. Lwów was captured for the first time since the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
by a foreign army in 1704 when
Swedish troops under King
Charles XII
Charles XII, sometimes Carl XII ( sv, Karl XII) or Carolus Rex (17 June 1682 – 30 November 1718 O.S.), was King of Sweden (including current Finland) from 1697 to 1718. He belonged to the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, a branch line of t ...
entered the city after a short siege. The
plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pes ...
of the early 18th century caused the death of about 10,000 inhabitants (40% of the city's population).
Habsburg Empire
![Old map of Lviv (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Old_map_of_Lviv_%28cropped%29.jpg)
In 1772, following the
First Partition of Poland, the region was annexed by the
Habsburg monarchy
The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...
to the
Austrian Partition
The Austrian Partition ( pl, zabór austriacki) comprise the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth acquired by the Habsburg monarchy during the Partitions of Poland in the late 18th century. The three partition (politics), p ...
. Known in German as ''Lemberg'', the city became the capital of the
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria,, ; pl, Królestwo Galicji i Lodomerii, ; uk, Королівство Галичини та Володимирії, Korolivstvo Halychyny ta Volodymyrii; la, Rēgnum Galiciae et Lodomeriae also known as ...
. Lemberg grew dramatically during the 19th century, increasing in population from approximately 30,000 at the time of the Austrian annexation in 1772,
[Tertius Chandler. (1987) ''Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth: A Historical Census''. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellon Press] to 196,000 by 1910 and to 212,000 three years later; while the
poverty in Austrian Galicia
Poverty in Austrian Galicia was extreme, particularly in the late 19th century. Reasons included the little interest in reforms on the part of major landowners and the Austrian government; population growth resulting in small peasant plots; inadequ ...
was raging.
[New International Encyclopedia, Volume 13.](_blank)
Lemberg 1915, p. 760. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries a large influx of Austrians and German-speaking Czech bureaucrats gave the city a character that by the 1840s was quite Austrian, in its orderliness and in the appearance and popularity of Austrian coffeehouses.
[Chris Hann, Paul R. Magocsi.(2005). ''Galicia: Multicultured Land.'' Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pg. 193]
During Habsburg's rule, Lviv became one of the most important Polish, Ukrainian and Jewish cultural centres. In Lviv, according to the Austrian census of 1910, which listed religion and language, 51% of the city's population was
Roman Catholics
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, 28% Jews, and 19% belonged to the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
, native_name_lang = uk
, caption_background =
, image = StGeorgeCathedral Lviv.JPG
, imagewidth =
, type = Particular church (sui iuris)
, alt =
, caption = St. George's C ...
. Linguistically, 86% of the city's population used the
Polish language
Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In a ...
and 11% preferred the
Ruthenian.
![Lwow Panorama Raclawicka](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Lwow_Panorama_Raclawicka.jpg)
In 1773, the first newspaper in Lemberg, ''Gazette de Leopoli'', began to be published. In 1784, a
Latin language
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
university was opened with lectures in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
,
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
and even
Ruthenian; after closing in 1805, it was reopened in 1817. By 1825, German became the sole language of instruction.
Lemberg University was opened by
Maria Theresa
Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina (german: Maria Theresia; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was ruler of the Habsburg dominions from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position ''suo jure'' (in her own right). ...
in 1784. By 1787, her successor
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 29, 1780 unt ...
opened "Studium Ruthenum" for students who did not know enough Latin to take regular courses.
During the 19th century, the Austrian administration attempted to
Germanise
Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, people and culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationalism went hand in hand. In ling ...
the city's educational and governmental institutions. Many cultural organisations which did not have a pro-German orientation were closed. After the
revolutions of 1848
The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...
, the language of instruction at the university shifted from German to include Ukrainian and Polish. Around that time, a certain
sociolect
In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language ( non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, an age group, or other social group.
Sociolects involve both passive acquisi ...
developed in the city known as the
Lwów dialect
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...
. Considered to be a type of Polish dialect, it draws its roots from numerous other languages besides Polish. In 1853,
kerosene lamp
A kerosene lamp (also known as a paraffin lamp in some countries) is a type of lighting device that uses kerosene as a fuel. Kerosene lamps have a wick or mantle as light source, protected by a glass chimney or globe; lamps may be used on a t ...
s as
street light
A street light, light pole, lamp pole, lamppost, street lamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or path. Similar lights may be found on a railway platform. When urban electric power distribution ...
ing were introduced by
Ignacy Łukasiewicz
Jan Józef Ignacy Łukasiewicz (; 8 March 1822 – 7 January 1882) was a Polish pharmacist, engineer, businessman, inventor, and philanthropist. He was one of the most prominent philanthropists in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, crown land o ...
and Jan Zeh. Then in 1858, these were updated to
gas lamps
Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a gaseous fuel, such as hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, coal gas (town gas) or natural gas. The light is produced either dire ...
, and in 1900 to
electric ones.
![Stanislav Skarbek Theatre in Lviv](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Stanislav_Skarbek_Theatre_in_Lviv.jpg)
After the so-called "
Ausgleich
The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 (german: Ausgleich, hu, Kiegyezés) established the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. The Compromise only partially re-established the former pre-1848 sovereignty and status of the Kingdom of Hungary ...
" of February 1867, the
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...
was reformed into a dualist
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
and a slow yet steady process of liberalisation of Austrian rule in Galicia started. From 1873, Galicia was de facto an autonomous province of
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
, with Polish and
Ruthenian as official languages.
Germanisation
Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, German people, people and German culture, culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationa ...
was halted and the censorship lifted as well.
Galicia was subject to the Austrian part of the Dual Monarchy, but the
Galician Sejm
*german: Landtag von Galizien
, native_name_lang =
, transcription_name =
, legislature =
, coa_pic = Wappen Königreich Galizien & Lodomerien.png
, coa_caption = Coat of arms of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodome ...
and provincial administration, both established in Lviv, had extensive privileges and prerogatives, especially in education, culture, and local affairs. In 1894, the
General National Exhibition
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED On ...
was held in Lviv. The city started to grow rapidly, becoming the fourth largest in Austria-Hungary, according to the census of 1910. Many
Belle Époque
The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque (; French for "Beautiful Epoch") is a period of French and European history, usually considered to begin around 1871–1880 and to end with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era ...
public edifices and tenement houses were erected, with many of the buildings from the Austrian period, such as the
Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet
The Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet ( uk, Львівський Національний академічний театр опери та балету імені Соломії Крушельницької ...
, built in the
Viennese Viennese may refer to:
* Vienna, the capital of Austria
* Viennese people, List of people from Vienna
* Viennese German, the German dialect spoken in Vienna
* Music of Vienna, musical styles in the city
* Viennese Waltz, genre of ballroom dance
* V ...
neo-Renaissance style.
![Sejm Galicyjski](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Sejm_Galicyjski.jpg)
At that time, Lviv was home to a number of renowned Polish-language institutions, such as the
Ossolineum
Ossoliński National Institute ( pl, Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, ZNiO), or the Ossolineum is a Polish cultural foundation, publishing house, archival institute and a research centre of national significance founded in 1817 in Lwów (now Lv ...
, with the second-largest collection of Polish books in the world, the
Polish Academy of Arts, the
National Museum
A national museum is a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In other countries a much greater numb ...
(since 1908), the Historical Museum of the City of Lwów (since 1891), the
Polish Copernicus Society of Naturalists
Polish Copernicus Society of Naturalists ( pl, Polskie Towarzystwo Przyrodników im. Kopernika) is a Polish scientific society for natural sciences researchers.
History
The society was founded in 1875 in Lviv on the initiative of natural science ...
, the
Polish Historical Society
Polish Historical Society ( pl, Polskie Towarzystwo Historyczne, PTH) is a Polish professional scientific society for historians.
History
Founded in 1886 in Lwów by Ksawery Liske as a local society, in 1926 it became the Poland-wide organizati ...
,
Lwów University
The University of Lviv ( uk, Львівський університет, Lvivskyi universytet; pl, Uniwersytet Lwowski; german: Universität Lemberg, briefly known as the ''Theresianum'' in the early 19th century), presently the Ivan Franko Na ...
, with Polish as the official language since 1882, the
Lwów Scientific Society Lwów Scientific Society ( pl, Towarzystwo Naukowe we Lwowie) was a Polish learned society founded in 1901 in Lwów by Oswald Balzer as the ''Association of Support of Polish Sciences''. In 1920, the name was changed into ''Lwów Scientific Society ...
, the
Lwów Art Gallery, the
Polish Theatre
In common with other European countries, the most frequent and most popular form of theatre in Poland is dramatic theatre, based on the existence of relatively stable artistic companies. It is above all a theatre of directors, who decide on the ...
, and the
Polish Archdiocese.
Furthermore, Lviv was the centre of a number of Polish independence organisations. In June 1908,
Józef Piłsudski
), Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire (now Lithuania)
, death_date =
, death_place = Warsaw, Poland
, constituency =
, party = None (formerly PPS)
, spouse =
, children = Wan ...
,
Władysław Sikorski
Władysław Eugeniusz Sikorski (; 20 May 18814 July 1943) was a Polish military and political leader.
Prior to the First World War, Sikorski established and participated in several underground organizations that promoted the cause for Polish ...
and
Kazimierz Sosnkowski
General Kazimierz Sosnkowski (; Warsaw, 19 November 1885 – 11 October 1969, Arundel, Quebec) was a Polish independence fighter, general, diplomat, and architect.
He was a major political figure and an accomplished commander, notable in p ...
founded here the
Union of Active Struggle
The Union of Active Struggle ( pl, Związek Walki Czynnej, ZWC), also translated as ''Union for Active Struggle'' and ''Union for Active Resistance'',Thus rendered in Richard M. Watt, ''Bitter Glory: Poland and Its Fate, 1918 to 1939'', p. 37. W ...
. Two years later, the paramilitary organisation, called the
Riflemen's Association
The Polish Riflemen's Association known as ''Związek Strzelecki'' (or more commonly, in the plural form as ''Związki Strzeleckie'') formed in great numbers prior to World War I. One of the better known associations called "Strzelec" (Riflemen's ...
, was also founded in the city by Polish activists.
At the same time, Lviv became the city where famous Ukrainian writers (such as
Ivan Franko
Ivan Yakovych Franko (Ukrainian: Іван Якович Франко, pronounced ˈwɑn ˈjɑkowɪtʃ frɐnˈkɔ 27 August 1856 – 28 May 1916) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and literary critic, journalist, interpreter, economist, ...
,
Panteleimon Kulish
Panteleimon Oleksandrovych Kulish (also spelled ''Panteleymon'' or ''Pantelejmon Kuliš'', uk, Пантелеймон Олександрович Куліш, August 7, 1819 – February 14, 1897) was a Ukrainian writer, critic, poet, folklori ...
and
Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky
Ivan Semenovych Nechuy-Levytsky (born Levytsky; – 2 April 1918) was a well-known Ukrainian writer.
Biography
Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky was born on to the family of a peasant priest in Stebliv (Cherkasy Oblast in central Ukraine). In 1847 he en ...
) published their work. It was a centre of Ukrainian cultural revival. The city also housed the largest and most influential Ukrainian institutions in the world, including the
Prosvita
Prosvita ( uk, просвіта, 'enlightenment') is a society for preserving and developing Ukrainian culture and education among population that created in the nineteenth century in the Austria-Hungary Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.
By the ...
society dedicated to spreading literacy in the Ukrainian language, the
Shevchenko Scientific Society
The Shevchenko Scientific Society () is a Ukrainian scientific society devoted to the promotion of scholarly research and publication that was founded in 1873.
Unlike the government-funded National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the society ...
, the Dniester Insurance Company and base of the
Ukrainian cooperative movement The Ukrainian Cooperative Movement was a movement that addressed the economic plight of the Ukrainians, Ukrainian people through the creation of financial, agricultural and trade cooperatives that enabled Ukrainians (primarily peasants) to pool thei ...
, and it served as the seat of the
Ukrainian Catholic Church Ukrainian Catholic Church may refer to:
* Latin Church in Ukraine
* Greek Catholic Churches (Eastern Catholic communities of the Byzantine Rite, centered in Ukraine, in communion with the Church of Rome)
**Ruthenian Greek Catholic Church
**Ukraini ...
. Lviv was also a major centre of Jewish culture, in particular as a centre of the
Yiddish language
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
, and was the home of the world's first Yiddish-language daily newspaper, the ''Lemberger Togblat'', established in 1904.
First World War
![Lemberg 1915 Mariyska](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Lemberg_1915_Mariyska.jpg)
In the
Battle of Galicia
The Battle of Galicia, also known as the Battle of Lemberg, was a major battle between Russia and Austria-Hungary during the early stages of World War I in 1914. In the course of the battle, the Austro-Hungarian armies were severely defeated and ...
at the early stages of the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Lviv was captured by the
Russian army
The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска В Sukhoputnyye voyska V, also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces.
The primary responsibilities of the Russian Gro ...
in September 1914 following the
Battle of Gnila Lipa
The Battle of Gnila Lipa took place early in the World War I on 29–30 August 1914, when the Imperial Russian Army invaded Galicia (Eastern Europe), Galicia and engaged the defending Austro-Hungarian Army. It was part of a larger series of battl ...
. The Lemberg Fortress fell on 3 September. The historian
Pál Kelemen
Pál Kelemen (24 April 1894 – 15 February 1993) was a Hungarian-American archaeologist, art historian, and international art lecturer who contributed to the research of Pre-Columbian art. Kelemen was one of the first to recognize the importance ...
provided a first-hand account of the chaotic evacuation of the city by the
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army (, literally "Ground Forces of the Austro-Hungarians"; , literally "Imperial and Royal Army") was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint arm ...
and civilians alike.
The town was retaken by
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
in June the following year during the
Gorlice–Tarnów offensive
The Gorlice–Tarnów offensive during World War I was initially conceived as a minor German offensive to relieve Russian pressure on the Austro-Hungarians to their south on the Eastern Front, but resulted in the Central Powers' chief offensiv ...
. Lviv and its population, therefore, suffered greatly during the First World War as many of the offensives were fought across its local geography causing significant
collateral damage
Collateral damage is any death, injury, or other damage inflicted that is an incidental result of an activity. Originally coined by military operations, it is now also used in non-military contexts.
Since the development of precision guided ...
and disruption.
Polish–Ukrainian War
![Edward Kozak USR in Lviv](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Edward_Kozak_USR_in_Lviv.jpg)
![Orleta Eaglets defending the Łyczaków Cemetery during the Siege of Lwów](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Orleta_Eaglets_defending_the_%C5%81yczak%C3%B3w_Cemetery_during_the_Siege_of_Lw%C3%B3w.jpg)
After the
collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy at the end of the First World War Lwów became an arena of battle between the local Polish population and the
Ukrainian Sich Riflemen
Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (german: Ukrainische Sitschower Schützen; uk, Українські cічові стрільці (УСС), translit=Ukraïnski sichovi stril’tsi (USS)) was a Ukrainian unit within the Austro-Hungarian Army d ...
. Both nations perceived the city as an integral part of their new statehoods which at that time were forming in the former Austrian territories. On the night of 31 October – 1 November 1918 the
Western Ukrainian People's Republic
The West Ukrainian People's Republic (WUPR) or West Ukrainian National Republic (WUNR), known for part of its existence as the Western Oblast of the Ukrainian People's Republic, was a short-lived polity that controlled most of Eastern Galic ...
was proclaimed with Lwów as its capital. 2,300 Ukrainian soldiers from the
Ukrainian Sich Riflemen
Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (german: Ukrainische Sitschower Schützen; uk, Українські cічові стрільці (УСС), translit=Ukraïnski sichovi stril’tsi (USS)) was a Ukrainian unit within the Austro-Hungarian Army d ...
(Sichovi Striltsi), which had previously been a corps in the Austrian Army, made an attempt to take over Lviv. The city's Polish majority opposed the Ukrainian declaration and began to fight against the Ukrainian troops. During this combat an important role was taken by young Polish city defenders called
Lwów Eaglets
Lwów Eaglets ( pl, Orlęta lwowskie) is a term of affection that is applied to the Polish child soldiers who defended the city of Lwów ( uk, L'viv), in Eastern Galicia, during the Polish-Ukrainian War (1918–1919).
Background
The city now k ...
.
The Ukrainian forces withdrew outside Lwów's confines by 21 November 1918, after which elements of Polish soldiers began to loot and burn much of the Jewish and Ukrainian quarters of the city, killing approximately 340 civilians (see:
Lwów pogrom).
[Norman Davies]
"Ethnic Diversity in Twentieth-Century Poland."
In: Herbert Arthur Strauss. Hostages of Modernisation: Studies on Modern Antisemitism, 1870–1933/39. Walter de Gruyter, 1993. The retreating Ukrainian forces besieged the city. The Sich riflemen reformed into the
Ukrainian Galician Army
Ukrainian Galician Army ( uk, Українська Галицька Армія, translit=Ukrayins’ka Halyts’ka Armiya, UHA), was the Ukrainian military of the West Ukrainian National Republic during and after the Polish-Ukrainian War. It wa ...
(UHA). The Polish forces aided from central Poland, including
General Haller's ''
Blue Army'', equipped by the French, relieved the besieged city in May 1919 forcing the UHA to the east.
Despite
Entente
Entente, meaning a diplomatic "understanding", may refer to a number of agreements:
History
* Entente (alliance), a type of treaty or military alliance where the signatories promise to consult each other or to cooperate with each other in case o ...
mediation attempts to cease hostilities and reach a compromise between belligerents the
Polish–Ukrainian War
The Polish–Ukrainian War, from November 1918 to July 1919, was a conflict between the Second Polish Republic and Ukrainian forces (both the West Ukrainian People's Republic and Ukrainian People's Republic). The conflict had its roots in ethn ...
continued until July 1919 when the last UHA forces withdrew east of the
River Zbruch. The border on the River Zbruch was confirmed at the
Treaty of Warsaw, when in April 1920 Field
Marshal Piłsudski
Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used for elevated o ...
signed an agreement with
Symon Petlura
Symon Vasylyovych Petliura ( uk, Си́мон Васи́льович Петлю́ра; – May 25, 1926) was a Ukrainian politician and journalist. He became the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Army and the President of the Ukrainian People' ...
where it was agreed that for military support against
the Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks were a professional wrestling tag team in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from late 1987 until the spring of 1990. The team was composed of Nikolai Volkoff and Boris Zhukov portraying a pair of Soviet Communist bad guys. Volk ...
the
Ukrainian People's Republic
The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR), or Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), was a country in Eastern Europe that existed between 1917 and 1920. It was declared following the February Revolution in Russia by the First Universal. In March 1 ...
renounced its claims to the territories of Eastern Galicia.
In August 1920, Lwów was attacked by the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
under the command of
Aleksandr Yegorov and
Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
during the
Polish–Soviet War
The Polish–Soviet War (Polish–Bolshevik War, Polish–Soviet War, Polish–Russian War 1919–1921)
* russian: Советско-польская война (''Sovetsko-polskaya voyna'', Soviet-Polish War), Польский фронт (' ...
but
the city repelled the attack. For the courage of its inhabitants Lwów was awarded the
Virtuti Militari
The War Order of Virtuti Militari (Latin: ''"For Military Virtue"'', pl, Order Wojenny Virtuti Militari) is Poland's highest military decoration for heroism and courage in the face of the enemy at war. It was created in 1792 by Polish King Stan ...
cross by Józef Piłsudski on 22 November 1920.
On 23 February 1921, the council of the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
declared that Galicia (including the city) lay outside the territory of Poland and that Poland did not have the mandate to establish administrative control in that country, and that Poland was merely the occupying military power of Galicia (as a whole
), whose sovereign remained the
Allied Powers and fate would be determined by the
Council of Ambassadors
The Conference of Ambassadors of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers was an inter-allied organization of the Entente in the period following the end of World War I. Formed in Paris in January 1920 it became a successor of the Supreme War ...
at the League of Nations. On 14 March 1923, the Council of Ambassadors decided that Galicia would be incorporated into Poland "whereas it is recognised by Poland that ethnographical conditions necessitate an autonomous regime in the
Eastern part of Galicia." "This proviso was never honoured by the
interwar Polish government." After 1923, Galicia was internationally recognized as part of the Polish state.
Interwar period
![Lwów](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Lw%C3%B3w.Panorama_miasta.jpg)
During the
interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
, Lwów held the rank of the
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
's third most populous city (following
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
and
Łódź
Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...
), and it became the seat of the
Lwów Voivodeship
Lwów Voivodeship ( pl, Województwo lwowskie) was an administrative unit of interwar Poland (1918–1939). Because of the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland in accordance with the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, it became occupied by both the Wehr ...
. Following Warsaw, Lwów was the second most important cultural and academic centre of interwar Poland. For example, in 1920 professor
Rudolf Weigl
Rudolf Stefan Jan Weigl (2 September 1883 – 11 August 1957) was a Polish biologist, physician and inventor, known for creating the first effective vaccine against epidemic typhus. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine each year betwe ...
of the Lwów University developed a
vaccine
A vaccine is a biological Dosage form, preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease, infectious or cancer, malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verifie ...
against
typhus fever
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure.
...
. Furthermore, the geographic location of Lwów gave it an important role in stimulating international trade and fostering the city's and Poland's economic development. A major
trade fair
A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and c ...
called ''
Targi Wschodnie
The Eastern Trade Fair or Targi Wschodnie in Polish () was a major trade fair in interbellum Poland.
History
It was established in 1921 in Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine) right after the end of hostilities there; designed to facilitate new business ...
'' was established in 1921. In the academic year 1937–1938, there were 9,100 students attending five institutions of higher education, including the
Lwów University
The University of Lviv ( uk, Львівський університет, Lvivskyi universytet; pl, Uniwersytet Lwowski; german: Universität Lemberg, briefly known as the ''Theresianum'' in the early 19th century), presently the Ivan Franko Na ...
as well as the
Polytechnic
Polytechnic is most commonly used to refer to schools, colleges, or universities that qualify as an institute of technology or vocational university also sometimes called universities of applied sciences.
Polytechnic may also refer to:
Educatio ...
.
![Targi Wschodnie (1930th)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Targi_Wschodnie_%281930th%29.jpg)
While about two-thirds of the city's inhabitants were Poles, some of whom spoke the characteristic
Lwów dialect
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...
, the eastern part of the Lwów Voivodeship had a relative
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
majority in most of its rural areas. Although Polish authorities obliged themselves internationally to provide
Eastern Galicia
Eastern Galicia ( uk, Східна Галичина, Skhidna Galychyna, pl, Galicja Wschodnia, german: Ostgalizien) is a geographical region in Western Ukraine (present day oblasts of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil), having also essential h ...
with an autonomy (including a creation of a separate Ukrainian university in Lwów) and even though in September 1922 adequate
Polish Sejm
The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland.
The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the ...
's Bill was enacted, it was not fulfilled.
The Polish government discontinued many Ukrainian schools which functioned during the Austrian rule,
and closed down Ukrainian departments at the University of Lwów with the exception of one.
Prewar Lwów also had a large and thriving
Jewish community
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, which constituted about a quarter of the population.
Unlike in Austrian times, when the size and number of public parades or other cultural expressions corresponded to each cultural group's relative population, the Polish government emphasised the Polish nature of the city and limited public displays of
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
and
Ukrainian culture
The culture of Ukraine is the composite of the material and spiritual values of the Ukrainian people that has formed throughout the history of Ukraine. It is closely intertwined with ethnic studies about ethnic Ukrainians and Ukrainian historiog ...
. Military parades and commemorations of battles at particular streets within the city, all celebrating the Polish forces who fought against the Ukrainians in 1918, became frequent, and in the 1930s a vast
memorial monument and burial ground of Polish soldiers from that conflict was built in the city's
Lychakiv Cemetery
Lychakiv Cemetery ( uk, Личаківський цвинтар, translit=Lychakivs’kyi tsvyntar; pl, Cmentarz Łyczakowski we Lwowie), officially State History and Culture Museum-Preserve "Lychakiv Cemetery" ( uk, Державний істор ...
.
World War II and the Soviet incorporation
Germany invaded Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after ...
on 1 September 1939 and by 14 September Lwów was completely encircled by
German Army
The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...
units. Subsequently, the
Soviets invaded Poland on 17 September. On 22 September 1939 Lwów capitulated to the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
. The
USSR annexed the eastern half of the Second Polish Republic with Ukrainian and Belorussian populations. The city became the capital of the newly formed
Lviv Oblast
Lviv Oblast ( uk, Льві́вська о́бласть, translit=Lvivska oblast, ), also referred to as Lvivshchyna ( uk, Льві́вщина, ), ). The name of each oblast is a wikt:Appendix:Glossary#relational, relational adjective—in Englis ...
. The Soviets reopened uni-lingual Ukrainian schools, which were discontinued by the Polish government.
The only change over imposed by the Soviets was the language of instruction, with the actual net loss of about 1,000 schools in short order.
Ukrainian was made compulsory in the
University of Lviv
The University of Lviv ( uk, Львівський університет, Lvivskyi universytet; pl, Uniwersytet Lwowski; german: Universität Lemberg, briefly known as the ''Theresianum'' in the early 19th century), presently the Ivan Franko Na ...
with almost all its books in Polish. It became thoroughly
Ukrainized and was renamed after Ukrainian writer
Ivan Franko
Ivan Yakovych Franko (Ukrainian: Іван Якович Франко, pronounced ˈwɑn ˈjɑkowɪtʃ frɐnˈkɔ 27 August 1856 – 28 May 1916) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and literary critic, journalist, interpreter, economist, ...
. The Polish academics were laid off.
[Paul Robert Magocsi. (1996). ''A History of Ukraine''. Toronto: University of Toronto Press] Soviet rule turned out to be much more oppressive than Polish rule; the rich world of Ukrainian publications in Polish Lwów, for instance, was gone in Soviet Ukrainian Lviv, and many journalism jobs were lost with it.
German occupation
On 22 June 1941,
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and several of its
allies
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
invaded the USSR. In the initial stage of
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...
(30 June 1941) Lviv was taken by the Germans. The evacuating Soviets
killed most of the prison population, with arriving
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...
forces easily discovering evidence of the Soviet mass murders in the city
committed by the
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
and
NKGB
The People's Commissariat for State Security (russian: Народный комиссариат государственной безопасности) or NKGB, was the name of the Soviet Union, Soviet secret police, intelligence (information ...
.
Ukrainian nationalists
Ukrainian nationalism refers to the promotion of the unity of Ukrainians as a people and it also refers to the promotion of the identity of Ukraine as a nation state. The nation building that arose as nationalism grew following the French Revol ...
, organised as a militia, and the civilian population was allowed to take revenge on the "Jews and the Bolsheviks" and indulged in
several mass killings in Lviv and the surrounding region, which resulted in the deaths estimated at between 4,000 and 10,000 Jews. On 30 June 1941
Yaroslav Stetsko
Yaroslav Semenovich Stetsko (; 19 January 1912 – 5 July 1986) was a Ukrainian politician, writer and Nazi collaborator, who served as the leader of Stepan Bandera's Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), from 1968 until his death. Dur ...
proclaimed in Lviv the Government of an independent Ukrainian state allied with Nazi Germany. This was done without preapproval from the Germans and after 15 September 1941, the organisers were arrested.
[Організація українських націоналістів і Українська повстанська армія. Інститут історії НАН України.2004р Організація українських націоналістів і Українська повстанська армія,][І.К. Патриляк. Військова діяльність ОУН(Б) у 1940–1942 роках. – Університет імені Шевченко \Ін-т історії України НАН України Київ, 2004 (No ISBN)]
![Lviv holocaust memorial](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Lviv_holocaust_memorial.JPG)
The
Sikorski–Mayski Agreement signed in London on 30 July 1941 between
Polish government-in-exile
The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...
and USSR's government invalidated the
September 1939 Soviet-German partition of Poland, as the Soviets declared it null and void. Meanwhile, German-occupied Eastern Galicia at the beginning of August 1941 was incorporated into the
General Government
The General Government (german: Generalgouvernement, pl, Generalne Gubernatorstwo, uk, Генеральна губернія), also referred to as the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (german: Generalgouvernement für die be ...
as ''
Distrikt Galizien
The District of Galicia (german: Distrikt Galizien, pl, Dystrykt Galicja, ua, Дистрикт Галичина) was a World War II administrative unit of the General Government created by Nazi Germany on 1 August 1941 after the start of O ...
'' with Lviv as the district's capital. German policy towards the Polish population in this area was as harsh as in the rest of the General Government.
[ОУН і УПА в 1943 році: Документи / НАН України. Інститут історії України. – К.: Інститут історії України, 2008. – 347 с. p.166]
Germans during the occupation of the city committed numerous atrocities including the
killing of Polish university professors in 1941. German Nazis viewed the Ukrainian Galicians, former inhabitants of Austrian Crown Land, as to some point more
aryan
Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...
ised and civilised than the Ukrainian population living in the territories belonging to the
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
before 1939. As a result, they escaped the full extent of German acts in comparison to Ukrainians who lived to the east, in the German-occupied
Soviet Ukraine
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...
turned into the ''
Reichskommissariat Ukraine
During World War II, (abbreviated as RKU) was the civilian occupation regime () of much of Nazi German-occupied Ukraine (which included adjacent areas of modern-day Belarus and pre-war Second Polish Republic). It was governed by the Reich Min ...
''.
![Janowska Nazi camp orchestra](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Janowska_Nazi_camp_orchestra.jpg)
According to the
Third Reich's racial policies, local Jews then became the main target of German repressions in the region. Following the German occupation, the Jewish population was concentrated in the
Lwów Ghetto
, location = Lwów, Zamarstynów(German-occupied Poland)
, date = 8 November 1941 to June 1943
, incident_type = Imprisonment, mass shootings, forced labor, starvation, forced abortions and sterilization
, perpetrators =
, par ...
established in the city's Zamarstynów (today ''
Zamarstyniv
Zamarstyniv ( uk, Замарстинів, pl, Zamarstynów) is one of the boroughs of the city of Lviv in western Ukraine. It is notable as the main site of the infamous Lemberg Ghetto.
The name of the modern borough comes from the original vi ...
'') district and the
Janowska concentration camp
Janowska concentration camp ( pl, Janowska, russian: Янов or "Yanov", uk, Янівський табір) was a German Nazi concentration camp combining elements of labor, transit, and extermination camps. It was established in September 194 ...
was also set up. In the Janowska concentration camp, the Nazis conducted torture and executions to music. The
Lviv National Opera members, who were prisoners, played one and the same tune, Tango of Death.
On the eve of Lviv's liberation, German Nazis ordered 40 orchestra musicians to form a circle. The security ringed the musicians tightly and ordered them to play. First, the orchestra conductor, Mund, was executed. Then the commandant ordered the musicians to come to the center of the circle one by one, put their instruments onto the ground and strip naked, after which they were killed by a headshot. A
photo of the orchestra players was one of the incriminating documents at the
Nuremberg trials
The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies of World War II, Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.
Between 1939 and 1945 ...
.
In 1931 there were 75,316
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
-speaking inhabitants, but by 1941 approximately 100,000 Jews were present in Lviv. The majority of these Jews were either killed within the city or deported to
Belzec extermination camp
Belzec (English: or , Polish: ) was a Nazi German extermination camp built by the SS for the purpose of implementing the secretive Operation Reinhard, the plan to murder all Polish Jews, a major part of the "Final Solution" which in total ...
. In the summer of 1943, on the orders of
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
,
SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel
Paul Blobel (13 August 1894 – 7 June 1951) was a German ''Sicherheitsdienst'' (SD) commander and convicted war criminal who played a leading role in the Holocaust. He organised and executed the Babi Yar massacre, the largest massacre of th ...
was tasked with the destruction of any evidence of Nazi mass murders in the Lviv area. On 15 June Blobel, using forced labourers from Janowska, dug up a number of mass graves and incinerated the remains.
Later, on 19 November 1943, inmates at Janowska staged an uprising and attempted a mass escape. A few succeeded, but most were recaptured and killed. The
SS staff and their local auxiliaries then, at the time of the Janowska camp's liquidation, murdered at least 6,000 more inmates, as well as the
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
in other forced labour camps in Galicia. By the end of the war, the Jewish population of the city was virtually eliminated, with only around 200 to 800 survivors remaining.
Liberation from Germany
After the successful
Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive of July 1944, the Soviet
3rd Guards Tank Army
The 3rd Guards Tank Army (russian: 3-я гвардейская танковая армия) was a tank army established by the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II. The 3rd Tank Army was created in 1942 and fought in the southern areas of ...
captured Lwów on 27 July 1944, with significant cooperation from the local Polish resistance. Soon thereafter, the local commanders of Polish ''
Armia Krajowa
The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...
'' were invited to a meeting with the commanders of the Red Army. During the meeting, they were arrested, as it turned out to be a trap set by the Soviet NKVD. Later, in the winter and spring of 1945, the local NKVD kept arresting and harassing Poles in Lwów (which according to Soviet sources on 1 October 1944 still had a clear Polish majority of 66.7%) in an attempt to encourage their emigration from the city.
Those arrested were released only after they had signed papers in which they agreed to emigrate to Poland, which postwar borders were
to be shifted westwards in accordance with the
Yalta conference
The Yalta Conference (codenamed Argonaut), also known as the Crimea Conference, held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss the post ...
settlements. In Yalta, despite Polish objections, the Allied leaders,
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
,
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
and
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
decided that Lwów should remain within the borders of the Soviet Union. Roosevelt wanted Poland to have Lwów and the surrounding
oilfields
A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations.
Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presence ...
, but Stalin refused to allow it.
On 16 August 1945, a border agreement was signed in Moscow between the
government of the Soviet Union
The Government of the Soviet Union ( rus, Прави́тельство СССР, p=prɐˈvʲitʲɪlʲstvə ɛs ɛs ɛs ˈɛr, r=Pravítelstvo SSSR, lang=no), formally the All-Union Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, commonly ab ...
and the
Provisional Government of National Unity
The Provisional Government of National Unity ( pl, Tymczasowy Rząd Jedności Narodowej - TRJN) was a puppet government formed by the decree of the State National Council () on 28 June 1945 as a result of reshuffling the Soviet-backed Provisional ...
installed by the Soviets in Poland. In the treaty, Polish authorities formally
ceded
The act of cession is the assignment of property to another entity. In international law it commonly refers to land transferred by treaty. Ballentine's Law Dictionary defines cession as "a surrender; a giving up; a relinquishment of jurisdictio ...
the prewar eastern part of the country to the Soviet Union, agreeing to the Polish-Soviet border to be drawn according to the
Curzon Line
The Curzon Line was a proposed demarcation line between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Union, two new states emerging after World War I. It was first proposed by George Curzon, 1st Marque ...
. Consequently, the agreement was
ratified
Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent that lacked the authority to bind the principal legally. Ratification defines the international act in which a state indicates its consent to be bound to a treaty if the parties inte ...
on 5 February 1946.
Postwar Soviet Union
In February 1946, Lviv became a part of the Soviet Union. It is estimated that from 100,000 to 140,000 Poles were resettled from the city into the so-called
Recovered Territories
The Recovered Territories or Regained Lands ( pl, Ziemie Odzyskane), also known as Western Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Zachodnie), and previously as Western and Northern Territories ( pl, Ziemie Zachodnie i Północne), Postulated Territories ( pl, Z ...
as a part of
postwar population transfers, many of them to the area of newly acquired
Wrocław
Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...
, formerly the German city of Breslau. Many buildings in the old part of the city are examples of
Polish architecture
The architecture of Poland includes modern and historical monuments of architectural and historical importance.
Several important works of Western architecture, such as the Wawel Hill, the Książ and Malbork castles, cityscapes of Toruń, Zam ...
, which flourished in Lviv after the opening of the Technical School (later Polytechnic), the first higher-education technical academy in Polish lands. Polytechnic educated generations of architects who were influential in the entire country. Examples are: the main buildings of
Lviv Polytechnic
Lviv Polytechnic National University ( ua, Націона́льний університе́т «Льві́вська політе́хніка») is the largest scientific university in Lviv, Ukraine. Since its foundation in 1816, it has bee ...
,
University of Lviv
The University of Lviv ( uk, Львівський університет, Lvivskyi universytet; pl, Uniwersytet Lwowski; german: Universität Lemberg, briefly known as the ''Theresianum'' in the early 19th century), presently the Ivan Franko Na ...
,
Lviv Opera,
Lviv railway station
Lviv-Holovnyi railway station ( ua, Льві́в-Головни́й) is the main railway terminal in Lviv, Ukraine. It is one of the most notable pieces of Art Nouveau architecture in former Galicia. The station was opened to the public in 19 ...
, former building of Galicyjska Kasa Oszczędności,
Potocki Palace.
During the interwar period, Lviv was striving to become a modern metropolis, so architects experimented with modernism. It was the period of the most rapid growth of the city, so one can find many examples of architecture from this time in the city. Examples include the main building of
Lviv Academy of Commerce
The Lviv University of Trade and Economics is a university in Lviv, Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the e ...
, the second Sprecher's building or building of City Electrical Facilities. One monument of the Polish past is the
Adam Mickiewicz Monument at the square bearing his name.
Many Polish pieces of art and sculpture can be found in Lviv galleries, among them works by
Jan Piotr Norblin
Jean-Pierre Norblin de La Gourdaine ( pl, Jan Piotr Norblin; 15 July 1745 – 23 February 1830) was a Polish- French painter, draughtsman, engraver and caricaturist. Born in France, from 1774 to 1804 he resided in the Crown of the Kingdom of ...
,
Marcello Bacciarelli
Marcello Bacciarelli (; 16 February 1731 – 5 January 1818) was a Polish-Italian painter of the late-baroque and Neoclassic periods.
Biography
He was born in Rome, and studied there under Marco Benefial. In 1750, with the recommendation of the ...
,
Kazimierz Wojniakowski
Kazimierz Wojniakowski (1771/72, Kraków – 1812, Warsaw) was a Polish painter, illustrator and Freemason, known primarily for his portraits in the sentimentalist style.
Life and work
He was a pupil of Marcello Bacciarelli."Wojniakowski, Kazimi ...
, Antoni Brodowski, Henryk Rodakowski, Artur Grottger, Jan Matejko, Aleksander Gierymski, Jan Stanisławski (painter), Jan Stanisławski, Leon Wyczółkowski, Józef Chełmoński, Józef Mehoffer, Stanisław Wyspiański, Olga Boznańska, Władysław Słowiński, Jacek Malczewski. Poles who stayed in Lviv have formed the organisation the Association of Polish Culture of the Lviv Land.
According to various estimates, Lviv lost between 80% and 90% of its prewar population. Expulsion of the Polish population and the Holocaust together with migration from Ukrainophone, Ukrainian-speaking surrounding areas (including forcibly resettled from the territories which, after the war, became part of the Polish People's Republic), from other parts of the Soviet Union, altered the ethnic composition of the city. Immigration from Russia and Russian-speaking regions of Eastern Ukraine was encouraged. The prevalence of the Ukrainian-speaking population has led to the fact that under the conditions of Soviet Russification, Lviv became a major centre of the Dissident movement in the Soviet Union, dissident movement in Ukraine and played a key role in Ukraine's independence in 1991.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the city expanded both in population and size mostly due to the city's rapidly growing industrial base. Due to the fight of SMERSH with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, Lviv obtained a nickname with a negative connotation of ''Banderstadt'' as the City of Stepan Bandera. The German suffix for the city ''stadt'' was added instead of the Russian ''Grad (toponymy), grad'' to imply alienation. Over the years the residents of the city found this so ridiculous that even people not familiar with Bandera accepted it as sarcasm in reference to the Soviet perception of western Ukraine. In the period of Perestroika, liberalisation from the Soviet system in the 1980s, the city became the centre of political movements advocating Modern history of Ukraine, Ukrainian independence from the USSR. By the time of the Dissolution of the Soviet Union, fall of the Soviet Union the name became a proud mark for the Lviv natives culminating in the creation of a local rock band under the name ''Khloptsi z Bandershtadtu'' (Boys from Banderstadt).
On 17 September 1989 Lviv saw the largest rally in support of Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union, gathering some 100,000 participants.
Independent Ukraine
Citizens of Lviv strongly supported Viktor Yushchenko during the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election and played a key role in the Orange Revolution. Hundreds of thousands of people would gather in freezing temperatures to demonstrate for the Orange camp. Acts of civil disobedience forced the head of the local police to resign and the local assembly issued a resolution refusing to accept the fraudulent first official results. Lviv remains today one of the main centres of Ukrainian culture and the origin of much of the nation's political class.
In support of the Euromaidan movement, Lviv's executive committee declared itself independent of the rule of President Viktor Yanukovych on 19 February 2014.
In 2019 citizens of Lviv supported Petro Poroshenko during the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election. The number of votes for Poroshenko was determined by more than 90%. Despite this support, he lost the national vote.
Until 18 July 2020, Lviv was incorporated as a city of regional significance (Ukraine), city of oblast significance and the center of Lviv Municipality. The municipality was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Lviv Oblast to seven. The area of Lviv Municipality was merged into the newly established Lviv Raion.
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lviv became the nation's ''de facto'' western capital in February 2022 as some embassies, government agencies, and media organizations were relocated from Kyiv due to a direct military threat to the capital.
Lviv also became a safe haven for the Ukrainians fleeing other parts of the country affected by the invasion, their number exceeding 200,000 as of 18 March 2022. Many used the city as a stopping point on their way to Poland. Lviv and the larger region around it also served as crucial arms and humanitarian supply route.
Bracing for Russian attacks, local government and citizens, helped by the Polish and Croatian advisers, worked to protect the city's cultural heritage by erecting makeshift barriers around historical monuments, wrapping statues, and safeguarding art treasures.
In the course of the war, the area in and around Lviv was struck by Russian missile attacks, hitting the Yavoriv military base attack, Yavoriv military training base on 13 March 2022, the Lviv State Aircraft Repair Plant near the Lviv Danylo Halytskyi International Airport on 18 March 2022,
and a fuel depot and other facilities within the city limits on 26 March 2022.
According to Mayor Andriy Sadovyi, Andriy Sadoviy, on 18 April 2022, the city was hit by five missile strikes. Seven civilians were killed and 11 were wounded. Regional governor Maksym Kozystkiy said that the targets were military factories and a tyre shop. A hotel housing evacuees was hit, damaging windows. On 18 April, TASS quoted the Russian Ministry of Defence that confirmed 315 targets were struck by Russian missiles overnight. The statement claimed that all targets were of a military nature.
Lviv was targeted during the 10 October 2022 missile strikes on Ukraine, resulting in a city-wide blackout. On 11 October 2022, Mayor Sadoviy reported that the city was hit by a missile strike, resulting in a power outage and water supply shortage.
Administrative division
![Town hall in Lviv2018](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Town_hall_in_Lviv2018.jpg)
Lviv is divided into six raions (districts), each with its own administrative bodies:
*Halych Raion (Lviv), Halych district (, )
*Zaliznytsia Raion (Lviv), Zaliznytsia district (, ), literally "railway neighborhood"
*Lychakiv Raion, Lychakiv district (, )
*Sykhiv Raion, Sykhiv district (, )
*Franko Raion (Lviv), Franko district (, ), named after
Ivan Franko
Ivan Yakovych Franko (Ukrainian: Іван Якович Франко, pronounced ˈwɑn ˈjɑkowɪtʃ frɐnˈkɔ 27 August 1856 – 28 May 1916) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and literary critic, journalist, interpreter, economist, ...
.
*Shevchenko Raion (Lviv), Shevchenko district (, ), named after Taras Shevchenko.
Notable suburbs include Vynnyky (), Briukhovychi (), and Rudne ().
Demographics
Lviv residents live 75 years on average, and this age is 7 years longer than the average age in Ukraine and 8 years more than the world average (68 years). In 2010 the average life expectancy was 71 among men and 79.5 years among women. The fertility rates have been steadily increasing between 2001 and 2010; however, the effects of low fertility in the previous years remained noticeable even though the birth rates grew. There is an acute shortage of young people under the age of 25. In 2011, 13.7% of Lviv's population consisted of young people under 15 years and 17.6% of persons aged 60 years and over.
Historical populations
![Lviv ethnicity](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Lviv_ethnicity.png)
*Year 1405: approx. 4,500 inhabitants in the Old Town, and additionally approx. 600 in the two suburbs.
[Heidemarie Petersen: ''Judengemeinde und Stadtgemeinde in Polen: Lemberg 1356–1581''. Harrasso Verlag, Wiesbaden 2003, p. 50 (in German]
limited online preview
)
*Year 1544: approx. 3,000 inhabitants in the Old Town (number had decreased by about 30% due to the fire of 1527), and additionally approx. 2,700 in the suburbs.
*Year 1840: approx. 67,000 inhabitants, including 20,000 Jews.
*Year 1850: nearly 80,000 inhabitants (together with the four suburbs), including more than 25,000 Jews.
*Year 1869: 87,109 inhabitants, among them 46,252 Roman Catholics, 26,694 Jews, 12,406 members of the Greek Uniate Churches.
[''The Encyclopædia Britannica: a dictionary of arts, sciences and general literature''. Vol. 14. The Henry G. Allen Company. 1890. p. 435.]
*Year 1890: 127,943 inhabitants (64,102 male, 63,481 female), among them 67,280 Roman-Catholic Church, Catholics, 36,130 Judaic, 21,876 members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Greek Uniate Churches, 2,061 Protestants, 596 Orthodox and others.
[''Brockhaus' Konversations-Lexikon''. 14th edition, vol. 11, Leipzig 1894, p. 76]
*Year 1900: 159,877 inhabitants, including the military (10,326 men). Of these inhabitants, 82,597 were members of the Roman Catholic Church, 29,327 members of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Greek Uniate Churches, and 44,258 were Jews. As their language of communication, 120,634 used
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
, 20,409
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
or Yiddish language, Yiddish, and 15,159 Ukrainian language, Ukrainian.
[''Meyers Konversations-Lexikon''. 6th edition, vol. 12, Leipzig and Vienna 1908, pp. 397–398.]
*Year 1921: 219,400 inhabitants, including 112,000 Poles, 76,000 Jews and 28,000 Ukrainians.
[''Der Große Brockhaus''. 15th edition, vol. 11, Leipig 1932, pp. 296–297.]
*Year 1939: 340.000 inhabitants.
*Year 1940: 500,000.
*July 1944: 149,000.
*Year 1955: 380,000.
*Year 2001: 725,000 inhabitants, of whom 88% were Ukrainians, 9% Russians and 1% Poles.
A further 200,000 people commuted daily from suburbs.
*Year 2007: 735,000 inhabitants. By gender: 51.5% women, and 48.5% men.
By place of birth:
56% born in Lviv, 19% born in
Lviv Oblast
Lviv Oblast ( uk, Льві́вська о́бласть, translit=Lvivska oblast, ), also referred to as Lvivshchyna ( uk, Льві́вщина, ), ). The name of each oblast is a wikt:Appendix:Glossary#relational, relational adjective—in Englis ...
, 11% born in East Ukraine, 7% born in the former republics of the
USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
(Russia 4%), 4% born in Poland, and 3% born in West Ukrainian People's Republic, Western Ukraine, but not in the
Lviv Oblast
Lviv Oblast ( uk, Льві́вська о́бласть, translit=Lvivska oblast, ), also referred to as Lvivshchyna ( uk, Льві́вщина, ), ). The name of each oblast is a wikt:Appendix:Glossary#relational, relational adjective—in Englis ...
.
*Religious adherence: (2001)
**52%
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
, native_name_lang = uk
, caption_background =
, image = StGeorgeCathedral Lviv.JPG
, imagewidth =
, type = Particular church (sui iuris)
, alt =
, caption = St. George's C ...
**31% Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate, Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate
**5% Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church
**3% Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)
**3% Other faiths
*In the year 2000, about 80% of Lviv's inhabitants were primarily Ukrainian-speaking.
Ethnic Polish population
Ethnic Poles and the Polish Jews began to settle in Lwów in considerable numbers already in 1349 after the city was conquered by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir of the Piast dynasty. Lwów served as Poland's major cultural and economic centre for several centuries, during the Polish Golden Age, and until the partitions of Poland perpetrated by Russia, Prussia, and Austria. In the
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
, the
Lwów Voivodeship
Lwów Voivodeship ( pl, Województwo lwowskie) was an administrative unit of interwar Poland (1918–1939). Because of the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland in accordance with the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, it became occupied by both the Wehr ...
(inhabited by 2,789,000 people in 1921) grew to 3,126,300 inhabitants in ten years.
As a result of World War II, Lviv was de-Polonised, mainly through Polish population transfers (1944–1946), Soviet-arranged population exchange in 1944–1946 but also by early deportations to Siberia.
Those who remained on their own volition after Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union, the border shift became a small ethnic minority in Lviv. By 1959 Poles made up only 4% of the local population. Many families were mixed.
During the Soviet decades only two Polish schools continued to function: No. 10 (with 8 grades) and No. 24 (with 10 grades).
In the 1980s the process of uniting groups into ethnic associations was allowed. In 1988 a Polish-language newspaper was permitted (''Gazeta Lwowska'').
[Polish Embassy ''The Poles in Lviv continue to be proud of their identity''](_blank)
accessed 21:05, 29 October 2009 The Polish population of the city continues to use the dialect of the Polish language known as ''
Lwów dialect
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...
'' ( pl, gwara lwowska).
Jewish population
The first known Jews in Lviv date back to the tenth century.
The oldest remaining Jewish tombstone dates back to 1348.
Apart from the Rabbanite Jews there were many Crimean Karaites, Karaites who had settled in the city after coming from the East and from Byzantine Empire, Byzantium. After Casimir III conquered Lviv in 1349 the Jewish citizens received many privileges equal to that of other citizens of Poland. Lviv had two separate Jewish quarter (diaspora), Jewish quarters, one within the city walls and one outside on the outskirts of the city. Each had its separate synagogue, although they shared a cemetery, which was also used by the Crimean Karaite community. Before 1939 there were 97 synagogues.
Before the The Holocaust, Holocaust about one-third of the city's population was made up of Jews (more than 140,000 on the eve of World War II). This number swelled to about 240,000 by the end of 1940 as tens of thousands of Jews fled from the Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), Nazi-occupied parts of Poland into the relative (and temporary) sanctuary of Soviet-occupied Poland (including Lviv) following the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact that divided Poland into Nazi and Soviet zones in 1939. Most of the Jewish population was killed in the Holocaust. Meanwhile, the Nazis also destroyed the Jewish cemetery, which was subsequently "paved over by the Soviets".
Due to the Holocaust and migration, the original Jewish population of the city all but vanished. After the war, the remnant was replenished by a newer Jewish population, formed from among the hundreds of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians who migrated to the city. The post-war Jewish population peaked at 30,000 in the 1970s. Currently, the Jewish population has shrunk considerably as a result of emigration (mainly to Israel and the United States) and, to a lesser degree, Jewish assimilation, assimilation, and is estimated to number a few thousand. A number of organisations continue to be active.
The Sholem Aleichem Jewish Culture Society in Lviv initiated the construction of a monument to the victims of the ghetto in 1988. On 23 August 1992, the memorial complex to the victims of the Lwów ghetto (1941–1943) was officially opened. During 2011–2012, some Antisemitism, anti-Semitic acts against the memorial took place. On 20 March 2011, it was reported that the slogan "death to the Jews" with a swastika was sprayed on the monument. On 21 March 2012, the memorial was vandalized by unknown individuals, in what seemed to be an anti-Semitic act.
Economy
![E14101](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/E14101.jpg)
Lviv is the most important business centre of Western Ukraine. As of 1 January 2011, the city has invested 837.1 million United States dollar, US dollars into the economy, accounting for almost two-thirds of total investment in the Lviv region. In 2015, the companies of Lviv received $14.3 million of foreign direct investment; which is however two times less than a year earlier ($30.9 million in 2014). During January–September 2017 the general amount of direct foreign investment received by the local government in Lviv is $52.4 million. According to the statistics administration, foreign capital was invested by 31 countries (some of the main investors: Poland – 47.7%; Australia – 11.3%; Cyprus – 10.7% and the Netherlands – 6%).
The total revenue of the city budget of Lviv for 2015 is set at about UAH 3.81 billion, which is 23% more than a year earlier (UAH 2.91 billion in 2014). As of 10 November 2017, the deputies of the Lviv City Council approved a budget in amount of UAH 5.4 billion ($204 million). The large part of which (UAH 5.12 billion) was the revenue of the fund of the Lviv.
The average wage in Lviv in 2015 in the business sector amounted to 14,041 UAH, in the budget sphere - 9,475 Ukrainian hryvnia, UAH. On 1 February 2014, registered unemployment was 0.6%. Lviv is one of the largest cities in Ukraine and is growing rapidly. According to the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine the List of Ukrainian oblasts and territories by salary, monthly average salary in Lviv is a little less than the average for Ukraine which in February 2013 was 6050 Ukrainian hryvnia, UAH ($755). According to World Bank Group, the World Bank classification Lviv is a middle class, middle-income city. In June 2019, the average wage amounted to 23,000 UAH ($920), which is 18,9% more than in the previous year.
Lviv has 218 large industrial Business, enterprises, more than 40 commercial banks, 4 exchanges, 13 investment companies, 80 insurance and 24 leasing companies, 77 audit firms and almost 9,000 small ventures. For many years machinery-building and electronics were leading industries in Lviv. The city-based public company Electron (company), Electron, trademark of national television sets manufacturing, produces the 32 and 37 inches liquid-crystal TV-sets. The Electrontrans specializes in design and production of modern Electric vehicle, electric transport including trams, trolleybuses, electric buses, and spare parts. In 2013 Elektrotrans JV started producing low-floor trams, the first Ukrainian 100% low-floor tramways. Lviv Bus Factory, LAZ is a bus manufacturing company in Lviv with its own rich history. Founded in 1945, LAZ started bus production in the early 1950s. Innovative design ideas of Lviv engineers have become the world standard in bus manufacturing.
The total volume of industrial production sold in 2015 amounted to UAH 24.2 billion, which is 39% more than a year earlier (UAH 14.6 billion in 2014).
There are several banks based in Lviv, such as Kredobank, Idea Bank, VS Bank, Oksi Bank and Lviv Bank. None of these banks have bankrupted during the political and economic crisis of 2014–2016. It can be explained by the presence of foreign capital in most of them.
From 2015 to 2019, the city experienced a construction boom. In Q1 2019, according to statistical data, growth in the volume of new housing construction was recorded in Lviv (3.2 times, to 377,900 square meters).
Lviv is a major business center between
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
and Kyiv. According to the Lviv Economic Development Strategy, the main branches of the city's economy by 2025 should become tourism and information technologies (IT), the business services and logistics are also a priority. In addition, The Nestlé service center is in Lviv. This center guides the company's divisions in 20 countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Also during 2016 the Global Service Center VimpelCom in Lviv was launched, which serves finance, procurement and HR operations in eight foreign branches of this company.
There are many restaurants and shops as well as street vendors of food, books, clothes, traditional cultural items and tourist gifts. Banking and money trading are an important part of the economy of Lviv with many banks and exchange offices throughout the city.
Information technology
Lviv is also one of the leaders of software export in Eastern Europe with expected sector growth of 20% by 2020. Over 15% of all IT specialists in Ukraine work in Lviv, with over 4100 new IT graduates coming from local universities each year. About 2,500 tech enthusiasts attended Lviv IT Arena, the largest technology conference in Western Ukraine. Over 24,000 IT specialists work in Lviv as of 2019.
Lviv is among top five most popular Ukrainian cities for opening Research and development, R&D center in IT and Outsourcing, IT outsourcing spheres together with Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv and Odessa, Odesa.
In 2009, KPMG, one of the well-known international auditing companies, included Lviv in top 30 cities with the greatest potential of information technology development. As of December 2015, there were 192 IT-companies operating in the city, of which 4 large (with more than 400 employees), 16 average (150–300 employees), 97 small (10–110 employees) and 70 micro companies (3–7 employees). From 2017 to 2018 the amount of IT-companies raised to 317.
The turnover of Lviv's IT industry in 2015 amounted to $300 million U.S. About 50% of IT services are exported to the US, 37% to Europe, and the rest to other countries. As of 2015, about 15 thousand specialists were employed in this industry with an average salary of 28 thousand UAH. According to a study of the Economic Effect of the Lviv IT-Market, which was conducted by Lviv IT Cluster and sociological agency "The Farm", there are 257 IT companies operating in Lviv in 2017, that employ about 17 thousand specialists. The economic impact of the IT industry in Lviv is $734 million U.S.
There are 15 top universities in Lviv, 5 of which prepare highly skilled specialists in computer and IT technologies and supply over 1,000 IT graduates to the market annually.
Lviv IT outsourcing companies gathered all kinds of Ukrainian developers in one place, resulting in many front-end interns, JavaScript developers, back-end and full-stack coders with proper qualifications, experience, and good English language skills. Some IT companies in Lviv offer outsourcing software services to international corporations rather than developing their software product.
Culture
Lviv is one of Ukraine's most important cultural centres. It is known as a centre of art, literature, music and theatre. Nowadays, the evidence of the city's cultural richness is the number of theatres, concert halls, and creative unions, and the high number of artistic activities (more than 100 festivals annually, 60 museums, and 10 theatres).
Old Town (Lviv), Lviv's historic centre has been on the UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site, World Heritage list since 1998. UNESCO gave the following reasons for its selection:
Architecture
Lviv's historic churches, buildings and relics date from the 13th century to the early 20th century (Polish and Austro-Hungarian rule). In recent centuries Lviv was spared some of the invasions and wars that destroyed other List of cities in Ukraine, Ukrainian cities. Its architecture reflects various European styles and periods. After the fires of 1527 and 1556 Lviv lost most of its gothic architecture, gothic-style buildings but it retains many buildings in renaissance architecture, renaissance, baroque architecture, baroque and the classical architecture, classic styles. There are works by artists of the Vienna Secession,
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
and Art Deco.
The buildings have many stone sculptures and carvings, particularly on large doors, which are hundreds of years old. The remains of old churches dot the central cityscape. Some three- to five-storey buildings have hidden inner courtyards and grottoes in various states of repair. Some cemeteries are of interest: for example, the Lychakiv Cemetery, Lychakivskiy Cemetery where the Polish elite was buried for centuries. Leaving the central area the architectural style changes radically as Soviet-era high-rise blocks dominate. In the centre of the city, the History of the Soviet Union, Soviet era is reflected mainly in a few modern-style national monuments and sculptures.
File:StsPeterAndPaulChurchinLviv.jpg, Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church (Lviv), Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church – An example of baroque style in Lviv
File:LvivEveningSummer2019.jpg, Bernardine Church, Lviv, Bernardine church and monastery in the style of Italian and Dutch mannerism
File:ProspektSvobodyLviv.jpg, Early 20th century architecture in Lviv
File:LvivShevchenkoAve.JPG, Architecture of Shevchenko Avenue
File:SykhivChurch.jpg, The Nativity of the Holy Virgin Church was constructed in 1995–2001 in Sykhiv district
File:Lviv northern part of the city.jpg, The mixture of modern and Soviet-era architecture in the northern part of the city
Monuments
![Lviv - Church of Transfiguration 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Lviv_-_Church_of_Transfiguration_01.jpg)
Outdoor sculptures in the city commemorate many notable individuals and topics reflecting the rich and complex history of Lviv. There are monuments to Adam Mickiewicz,
Ivan Franko
Ivan Yakovych Franko (Ukrainian: Іван Якович Франко, pronounced ˈwɑn ˈjɑkowɪtʃ frɐnˈkɔ 27 August 1856 – 28 May 1916) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and literary critic, journalist, interpreter, economist, ...
, Daniel of Galicia, King Danylo, Taras Shevchenko,
Ivan Fedorov, Solomiya Krushelnytska, Ioan Potcoavă, Ivan Pidkova, Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, Pope John Paul II, Jan Kiliński, Ivan Trush, Saint George, Wojciech Bartosz Głowacki, Bartosz Głowacki, the monument to the Mary (mother of Jesus), Virgin Mary, to Nikifor, The Good Soldier Švejk, Stepan Bandera, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, and many others.
During the
interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
there were monuments commemorating important figures of Polish history. Some of them were moved to the Polish "
Recovered Territories
The Recovered Territories or Regained Lands ( pl, Ziemie Odzyskane), also known as Western Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Zachodnie), and previously as Western and Northern Territories ( pl, Ziemie Zachodnie i Północne), Postulated Territories ( pl, Z ...
" after World War II, like the monument to Aleksander Fredro, which now is in
Wrocław
Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...
, the monument of King John III Sobieski, which after 1945 was moved to
Gdańsk
Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...
, and the monument of Kornel Ujejski, which is now in Szczecin. A book market takes place around the monument to Ivan Fyodorov (printer), Ivan Fеdorovych, a typographer in the 16th century who fled Moscow and found a new home in Lviv.
New ideas came to Lviv during Austro–Hungarian rule. In the 19th century, many publishing houses, newspapers and magazines were established. Among these was the
Ossolineum
Ossoliński National Institute ( pl, Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, ZNiO), or the Ossolineum is a Polish cultural foundation, publishing house, archival institute and a research centre of national significance founded in 1817 in Lwów (now Lv ...
which was one of the most important Polish scientific libraries. Most Polish-language books and publications of the Ossolineum library are still kept in a local Society of Jesus, Jesuit church. In 1997 the Polish government asked the Government of Ukraine, Ukrainian government to return these documents to Poland. In 2003, Ukraine allowed access to these publications for the first time. In 2006, an office of the Ossolineum (now in
Wrocław
Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...
) opened in Lviv and began scanning all its documents. Works written in Lviv contributed to Austrian, Ukrainian literature, Ukrainian, Yiddish, and Polish literature, with a multitude of translations.
Religion
Lviv is a city of religious variety. Religion (2012): Catholic: 57% (
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
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56% and Roman Catholic Church 1%), Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox: 32%, Protestantism: 2%, Judaism: 0.1%, Other religion: 3%, Indifferent to religious matters: 4%, Atheism: 1.9%.
Christianity
At one point, over 60 churches existed in the city. The largest Christian Churches have existed in the city since the 13th century. The city has been the seat of the Catholic Church in 3 rites: The Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Lviv, the
Roman Catholics
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, and the Armenian Apostolic Church, Armenian Church. Each has had a diocesan seat in Lviv since the 16th century. At the end of the 16th century, the
Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...
community in Ukraine Union of Brest, transferred their allegiance to the Pope in Rome and became the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
, native_name_lang = uk
, caption_background =
, image = StGeorgeCathedral Lviv.JPG
, imagewidth =
, type = Particular church (sui iuris)
, alt =
, caption = St. George's C ...
. This bond was forcibly dissolved in 1946 by the Soviet authorities and the Roman Catholic community was forced out by the expulsion of the Polish population. Since 1989, religious life in Lviv has experienced a revival.
Lviv is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lviv, the centre of the Roman Catholicism in Ukraine, Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine and until 21 August 2005 was the centre of the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
, native_name_lang = uk
, caption_background =
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, imagewidth =
, type = Particular church (sui iuris)
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. About 35 percent of religious buildings belong to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, 11.5 percent to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, 9 per cent to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate, Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate and 6 per cent to the Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church.
Until 2005, Lviv was the only city with two Catholic Cardinal (Catholicism), Cardinals: Lubomyr Husar (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Byzantine Rite) and Marian Jaworski (Catholic Church, Latin Rite).
In June 2001, Pope John Paul II visited the Latin Cathedral, Lviv, Latin Cathedral, St. George's Cathedral, Lviv, St. George's Cathedral and the Armenian Cathedral, Lviv, Armenian Cathedral.
Judaism
Lviv historically had a large and active History of the Jews in Ukraine, Jewish community and until 1941 at least 45 synagogues and prayer houses existed. Even in the 16th century, two separate communities existed. One lived in today's old town with the other in the Krakowskie Przedmieście. The Golden Rose Synagogue (Lviv), Golden Rose Synagogue was built in Lviv in 1582. In the 19th century, a more differentiated community started to spread out. Reform Judaism, Liberal Jews sought more cultural assimilation and spoke German and Polish. On the other hand, Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox and Hasidic Judaism, Hasidic Jews tried to retain the old traditions. Between 1941 and 1944, the Germans in effect completely destroyed the centuries-old Jewish tradition of Lviv. Most synagogues were destroyed and the Jewish population was forced first into a Nazi ghettos, ghetto before being forcibly transported to Nazi concentration camps, concentration camps where they were murdered.
Under the Soviet Union, synagogues remained closed and were used as warehouses or cinemas. The last functioning synagogue was closed in the 1960s. Only since the fall of the Iron Curtain, has the remainder of the Jewish community experienced a faint revival.
Currently, the only functioning Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Lviv is the Beis Aharon V'Yisrael Synagogue.
Arts
![Lwowska Galeria Sztuki - Wnętrza 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Lwowska_Galeria_Sztuki_-_Wn%C4%99trza_01.JPG)
The range of artistic Lviv is impressive. On the one hand, it is the city of classical art. Lviv Opera and Lviv Philharmonic are places that can satisfy the demands of true appraisers of the classical arts. This is the city of one of the most distinguished sculptors in Europe, Johann Georg Pinsel, Johann Georg Pinzel, whose works can be seen on the façade of the St. George's Cathedral, Lviv, St. George's Cathedral in Lviv and in the Pinzel Museum. This is also the city of Solomiya Krushelnytska, who began her career as a singer in Lviv Opera and later became the prima donna of La Scala, La Scala Opera in Milan.
The "Group Artes" was a young movement founded in 1929. Many of the artists studied in Paris and travelled throughout Europe. They worked and experimented in different areas of modern art: Futurism, Cubism, New Objectivity and Surrealism. Co–operation took place between avant-garde musicians and authors. Altogether thirteen exhibitions by "''Artes''" took place in Warsaw, Kraków, Łódz and Lviv. The German occupation put an end to this group. Otto Hahn was executed in 1942 in Lviv and Aleksander Riemer was murdered in Auschwitz in 1943.
Henryk Streng and Margit Reich-Sielska were able to escape the The Holocaust, Holocaust (or Shoah). Most of the surviving members of Artes lived in Poland after 1945. Only Margit Reich-Sielska (1900–1980) and Roman Sielski (1903–1990) stayed in Soviet Lviv. For years the city was one of the most important cultural centres of Poland with such writers as Aleksander Fredro, Gabriela Zapolska, Leopold Staff, Maria Konopnicka and Jan Kasprowicz living in Lviv.
Today Lviv is a city of fresh ideas and unusual characters. There are about 20 galleries (Lviv Municipal Art Center, Dzyga Art Center, The "Dzyga" Gallery, Art-Gallery "Primus", Gallery of the History of Ukrainian Military Uniforms, Gallery of Modern Art "Zelena Kanapa" and others). Lviv National Art Gallery is the largest museum of arts in Ukraine, with approximately 50,000 artworks, including paintings, sculptures and works of graphic art from Western and Eastern Europe, from the Middle Ages to the modern days.
Theatre and opera
![46-101-1483 Lviv Opera SAM 7712 Panorama](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/46-101-1483_Lviv_Opera_SAM_7712_Panorama.jpg)
In 1842 the Skarbek Theatre was opened making it the third-largest theatre in
Central Europe
Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...
. In 1903 the
Lviv National Opera house, which at that time was called the City-Theatre, was opened emulating the Vienna State Opera house. The house initially offered a changing repertoire such as classical dramas in German and
Polish language
Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In a ...
, opera, operetta, comedy and theatre.
The opera house is named after the Ukrainian opera diva Solomiya Krushelnytska, Salomea Krushelnytska who worked here.
In the
Janowska concentration camp
Janowska concentration camp ( pl, Janowska, russian: Янов or "Yanov", uk, Янівський табір) was a German Nazi concentration camp combining elements of labor, transit, and extermination camps. It was established in September 194 ...
, the Nazis conducted torture and executions to music. To do so they brought almost the whole Lviv National Opera to the camp. Professor Shtriks, opera conductor Mund and other famous Jewish musicians were among the members. From 1941 to 1944 the Nazis massacred 200,000 people including all 40 musicians.
Nowadays
Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet
The Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet ( uk, Львівський Національний академічний театр опери та балету імені Соломії Крушельницької ...
has a large creative group of performers who strive to maintain traditions of Ukrainian opera and classical ballet. The Theatre is a well-organized creative body where over 500 people work towards a common goal. The repertoire includes 10 Ukrainian music compositions. No other similar theatre in Ukraine has such a large number of Ukraine, Ukrainian productions. There are also many operas written by foreign composers, and most of these operas are performed in the original language: ''Othello'', ''Aida'', ''La Traviata'', ''Nabucco'', and ''A Masked Ball'' by G. Verdi, ''Tosca'', ''La Bohème'' and ''Madame Butterfly'' by G. Puccini, ''Cavalleria Rusticana'' by P. Mascagni, and ''Pagliacci'' by R. Leoncavallo (in Italian); ''Carmen'' by G. Bizet (in French), ''The Haunted Manor'' by S. Moniuszko (in Polish)
Museums and art galleries
![Zabytki Lwowa 106](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Zabytki_Lwowa_106.jpg)
Museum Pharmacy "Pid Chornym Orlom" (Beneath the Black Eagle) was founded in 1735 - it is the oldest pharmacy in Lviv. A museum related to pharmaceutical history was opened on the premises of the old pharmacy in 1966. The idea of creating such a museum had already come up in the 19th century. The Galician Association of Pharmacists was created in 1868. Members managed to assemble a small collection of exhibits, thus making the first step towards creating a new museum. The exhibition space has expanded considerably, with 16 exhibit rooms and a general exhibition surface totalling 700 sq. m. There are more than 3,000 exhibits in the museum. This is the only operating Museum Pharmacy in Ukraine and Europe.
The most notable of the museums are Lviv National Museum which houses the National Gallery. Its collection includes more than 140,000 unique items. The museum takes special pride in presenting the largest and most complete collection of medieval sacral art of the 12th to 18th centuries: icons, manuscripts, rare ancient books, decoratively carved pieces of art, metal and plastic artworks, and fabrics embroidered with gold and silver. The museum also boasts a unique monument of Ukrainian Baroque style: the Bohorodchansky Iconostasis. Exhibits include Ancient Ukrainian art from the 12th to 15th centuries, Ukrainian art from the 16th to 18th centuries, and Ukrainian art from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century.
Music
Lviv has an active musical and cultural life. Apart from the Lviv Opera, it has symphony orchestras, chamber orchestras and the Trembita Chorus. Lviv has one of the most prominent music academies and music colleges in Ukraine, the Lviv Conservatory, and a factory for stringed musical instruments. Lviv has been the home of numerous composers, such as Mozart's son Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Stanyslav Lyudkevych, Stanislav Liudkevych, Wojciech Kilar and Mykola Kolessa.
Flute virtuoso and composer Franz Doppler, Albert Franz Doppler (1821–1883) was born and spent his formative years here, including flute lessons from his father. The classical pianist Mieczysław Horszowski (1892–1993) was born here. The opera diva Solomiya Krushelnytska, Salomea Kruszelnicka called Lviv her home from the 1920s to 1930s. The classical violinist Adam Han Gorski was born here in 1940. "''Polish Radio Lwów''" was a Polskie Radio, Polish radio station that went on air on 15 January 1930. The programme proved very popular in Poland. Classical music and entertainment was aired as well as lectures, readings, youth programmes, news and liturgical services on Sunday.
![PikkardiyskaTertsia01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/PikkardiyskaTertsia01.jpg)
Popular throughout Poland was the Wesoła Lwowska Fala, Comic Lwów Wave a cabaret-revue with musical composition, musical pieces. Jewish artists contributed a great part to this artistic activity. Composers such as Henryk Wars, songwriters Emanuel Szlechter and Wiktor Budzyński (song writer), Wiktor Budzyński, the actor Wesoła Lwowska Fala, Mieczysław Monderer and Wesoła Lwowska Fala, Adolf Fleischer ("''Aprikosenkranz und Untenbaum''") worked in Lviv. The most notable stars of the shows were Henryk Vogelfänger and Kazimierz Wajda who appeared together as the comic duo "Szczepko and Tońko" and were similar to Laurel and Hardy.
The Lviv Philharmonic is a major cultural centre with a long history and traditions that complement Ukraine's entire culture. From the stage of Lviv Philharmonic began their way to the great art world-famous Ukrainian musicians Oleh Krysa, Oleksandr Slobodyanik, Yuriy Lysychenko, and Maria Chaikovska, as well as the younger musicians E. Chupryk, Y. Ermin, Oksana Rapita, and Olexandr Kozarenko. Lviv Philharmonic is one of Ukraine's leading concert institutions. Its activities include international festivals, cycles of concerts-monographs, and concerts with young musicians.
The Chamber Orchestra "Lviv virtuosos" was organised by the best Lviv musicians in 1994. The orchestra consists of 16–40 persons / it depends on programmes/ and in the repertoire are included the musical compositions from Bach, Corelli to modern Ukrainian and European composers. During the short time of its operation, the orchestra acquired the professional level of the best European standards. It is mentioned in more than 100 positive articles by Ukrainian and foreign musical critics.
Lviv is the hometown of the Vocal formation "Pikkardiyska Tertsiya" and Eurovision Song Contest 2004 winner Ruslana who has since become well known in Europe and the rest of the world. PikkardiyskaTertsia was created on 24 September 1992 in Lviv and has won many musical awards. It all began with a quartet performing ancient Ukrainian music from the 15th century, along with adaptations of traditional Ukrainian folk music, Ukrainian folk songs.
Lviv Organ Hall is a place where classical music (organ, symphonic, cameral) and art meet together. 50,000 visitors each year, dozens of musicians from all over the world. Lviv is also the hometown of one of the most successful and popular Ukrainian rock bands, Okean Elzy.
Universities and academia
Lviv University
The University of Lviv ( uk, Львівський університет, Lvivskyi universytet; pl, Uniwersytet Lwowski; german: Universität Lemberg, briefly known as the ''Theresianum'' in the early 19th century), presently the Ivan Franko Na ...
is one of the oldest in Central Europe and was founded as a Society of Jesus (Jesuit) school in 1608. Its prestige greatly increased through the work of philosopher Kazimierz Twardowski (1866–1938) who was one of the founders of the Lwów-Warsaw School of Logic. This school of thought set benchmarks for academic research and education in Poland. The Polish politician of the interbellum period Stanisław Głąbiński had served as dean of the law department (1889–1890) and as the university rector (1908–1909). In 1901 the city was the seat of the
Lwów Scientific Society Lwów Scientific Society ( pl, Towarzystwo Naukowe we Lwowie) was a Polish learned society founded in 1901 in Lwów by Oswald Balzer as the ''Association of Support of Polish Sciences''. In 1920, the name was changed into ''Lwów Scientific Society ...
among whose members were major scientific figures. The most well-known were the mathematicians Stefan Banach, Juliusz Schauder and Stanislaw Ulam, Stanisław Ulam who were founders of the Lwów School of Mathematics turning Lviv in the 1930s into the "World Centre of Functional Analysis" and whose share in Lviv academia was substantial.
In 1852 in Dublany, Podlaskie Voivodeship, Dublany ( from the outskirts of Lviv) the Agricultural Academy in Dublany, Agricultural Academy was opened and was one of the first Polish agricultural colleges. The academy was merged with the
Lviv Polytechnic
Lviv Polytechnic National University ( ua, Націона́льний університе́т «Льві́вська політе́хніка») is the largest scientific university in Lviv, Ukraine. Since its foundation in 1816, it has bee ...
in 1919. Another important college of the interbellum period was the Academy of Foreign Trade in Lwów.
In 1873 Lviv has founded
Shevchenko Scientific Society
The Shevchenko Scientific Society () is a Ukrainian scientific society devoted to the promotion of scholarly research and publication that was founded in 1873.
Unlike the government-funded National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the society ...
from the beginning it attracted the financial and intellectual support of writers and patrons of Ukrainian culture, Ukrainian background.
In 1893 due to the change in its statute, the Shevchenko Scientific Society was transformed into a real scholarly multidisciplinary academy of sciences. Under the presidency of the historian, Mykhailo Hrushevsky, it greatly expanded its activities, contributing to both the humanities and the physical sciences, law and medicine, but most specifically once again it was concentrated on Ukrainian studies.
The Soviet Union annexed the eastern half of the Second Polish Republic including the city of Lwów which capitulated to the Red Army on 22 September 1939. Upon their occupation of Lviv, the Soviets dissolved the Shevchenko society. Many of its members were arrested and either imprisoned or executed.
Mathematics
![Hotel-Atlas-2014](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Hotel-Atlas-2014.JPG)
Lviv was the home of the Scottish Café, where in the 1930s and the early 1940s, Polish mathematicians from the Lwów School of Mathematics met and spent their afternoons discussing mathematical problems. Stanislaw Ulam, Stanisław Ulam who was later a participant in the Manhattan Project and the proposer of the Teller–Ulam design, Teller-Ulam design of Nuclear weapon design, thermonuclear weapons, Stefan Banach one of the founders of functional analysis, Hugo Steinhaus, Karol Borsuk, Kazimierz Kuratowski, Mark Kac and many other notable mathematicians would gather there.
[Stanislaw M. Ulam, ''Adventures of a Mathematician'', New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1976. ] The café building now houses the Atlas Deluxe Hotel at 27 Taras Shevchenko Prospekt (prewar Polish street name: ''ulica Akademicka''). Mathematician Zygmunt Janiszewski died in Lviv on 3 January 1920.
Print and media
Ever since the early 1990s, Lviv has been the spiritual home of the post-independence Ukrainian-language publishing industry.
Lviv Book Forum (International Publishers' Forum) is the biggest book fair in Ukraine. Lviv is the centre of promotion of the Ukrainian Latin alphabet (Latynka).
The most popular newspapers in Lviv are "Vysoky Zamok (newspaper), Vysoky Zamok", "Ekspres", "Lvivska hazeta", "Ratusha", Subotna poshta", "Hazeta po-lvivsky", "Postup" and others. Popular magazines include "Lviv Today", "Chetver", "RIA" and "Ї". "Lviv Today" is a Ukrainian English-speaking magazine, whose content includes information about the business, advertisement and entertainment spheres in Lviv, and the country in general.
The Lviv oblast television company transmits on channel 12. There are three private television channels operating from Lviv: "LUKS", "NTA" and "ZIK".
There are 17 regional and all-Ukrainian radio stations operating in the city.
A number of information agencies exist in the city such as "ZIK", "Zaxid.net", "Гал-info", "Львівський портал" and others.
Lviv is home to one of the oldest Polish-language newspapers "Gazeta Lwowska" which was first published in 1811 and still exists in a bi-weekly form.
Among other publications were such titles as
*''Kurier Lwowski'': associated with people's movement which existed from 1883 to 1935. Among the writers who cooperated with it were such renowned names as Eliza Orzeszkowa, Jan Kasprowicz, Bolesław Limanowski, Władysław Orkan as well as
Ivan Franko
Ivan Yakovych Franko (Ukrainian: Іван Якович Франко, pronounced ˈwɑn ˈjɑkowɪtʃ frɐnˈkɔ 27 August 1856 – 28 May 1916) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and literary critic, journalist, interpreter, economist, ...
,
*''Słowo Lwowskie'' (1895–1939): A right-wing daily which cooperated with Władysław Reymont, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer, Kazimierz Tetmajer, Leopold Staff, Jerzy Żuławski and Gabriela Zapolska. Among its editors-in-chief was Stanisław Grabski. In the early 20th century ''Słowos circulation was 20,000 and it was the first Polish newspaper to publish a serialisation of Reymont's novel ''Chłopi''. After World War II Słowo was moved to
Wrocław
Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...
with first postwar issue published on 1 November 1946.
*''Czerwony Sztandar (Lviv newspaper), Czerwony Sztandar'': A Soviet daily published between 1939 and 1941.
Starting in the 20th century a new movement started with authors from Central Europe. In Lviv a small Neo-romanticism, neo-romantic group of authors formed around the lyricist Schmuel Jankev Imber. Small print offices produced collections of modern poems and short story, short stories and through emigration a large networkwas established. A second smaller group in the 1930s tried to create a connection between Avant-garde, avantgarde art and Yiddish culture. Members of this group were Debora Vogel, Rachel Auerbach and Rachel Korn. The Holocaust destroyed this movement with Debora Vogel amongst many other Yiddish authors murdered by the Germans in the 1940s.
In cinema and literature
*The book ''Tango of Death'' based on the true story of Jacob Mund, his orchestra, and dozens of thousands of other Jews who lived in Lviv at World War II. The book includes 60 documentary photos to show the violent truth of the The Holocaust, Holocaust.
*The 2011 film ''In Darkness (2011 film), In Darkness'', Poland's entry in the 84th Academy Awards category for Best Foreign Film, is based on a true incident in #German occupation, Nazi-occupied Lviv.
*Some of the Austrian road-movie ''Blue Moon (2002 film), Blue Moon'' was shot in Lviv.
*Parts of the film and novel ''Everything Is Illuminated'' take place in Lviv.
*Brian R. Banks' ''Muse & Messiah: The Life, Imagination & Legacy of Bruno Schulz (1892–1942)'' has several pages which discuss the history and cultural-social life of the Lviv region. The book includes a CD-ROM with many old and new photographs and the first English map of nearby Drohobych.
*The book ''The Girl in the Green Sweater: A Life in Holocaust's Shadow'' by Krystyna Chiger takes place in Lviv.
*Large parts of 1997 film ''The Truce (1997 film), The Truce'' depicting Primo Levi's war experiences were shot in Lviv.
*Large portions of the film ''d'Artagnan and Three Musketeers'' were shot in central Lviv.
*The book ''The Lemberg Mosaic'' (2011) by Jakob Weiss describes Jewish L'viv (Lemberg/Lwow/Lvov) during the period 1910–1943, focusing primarily on the Holocaust and related events.
*In the book and film ''The Shoes of the Fisherman (disambiguation), The Shoes of the Fisherman'' the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv is released from a Soviet labor camp and later elected Pope.
*The 2015 film ''Varta 1 (2015 film), Varta 1'', a movie which demonstrates the search for a new cinema features among young Ukrainian directors. The film uses the radio talks of the automobile patrols of activists of Lviv during EuroMaydan and it was made to create a better understanding of the nature of the revolution. The movie was shot and made in Lviv city.
*In the book ''East West Street: On the Origins of 'Genocide' and 'Crimes Against Humanity, Philippe Sands, a professor of law at University College London, recounts the life and work of Hersch Lauterpacht who introduced to international law the concept of the crime against humanity and Raphael Lemkin that of genocide. Both men lived and studied in Lviv.
Parks
Lviv's architectural face is complemented and enriched with numerous parks, and public gardens. There are over 20 basic recreation park zones, three botanical gardens and 16 natural monuments. They offer a splendid chance to escape from city life or simply sit for a while among the trees, at a nice fountain or a lake. Each park has its individual character which reflects through various monuments and their individual history.
*Ivan Franko Park, is the oldest park in the city. Traces of that time may be found in three-hundred-year-old oak and maple trees. Upon the abrogation of the Jesuit order in 1773 the territory became the town property. A well-known gardener Bager arranged the territory in the landscape style, and most of the trees were planted within 1885–1890.
*Bohdan Khmelnytsky Culture and Recreation Park, is one of the best organised and modern green zones containing a concert and dance hall, stadium, the town of attractions, central stage, numerous cafes and restaurants. In the park, there is a Ferris wheel.
*Stryiskyi Park, it is considered one of the most picturesque parks in the city. The park numbers over 200 species of trees and plants. It is well known for a vast collection of rare and valuable trees and bushes. At the main entrance gate, you will find a pond with swans.
*Regional Landscape Park Znesinnya, Znesinnya Park is an ideal site for cycling, skiing sports, and hiking. Public organisations favour conducting summer camps here (ecological and educational, educational and cognitive).
*Shevchenkivskyi Hay, in the park there is an open-air museum of Ukrainian wooden architecture.
*High Castle Park, the park is situated on the highest city hill () and occupies the territory of consisting of the lower terrace once called Knyazha Hora (Prince Mount), and the upper terrace with a television tower and artificial embankment.
*Zalizni Vody Park, the park originated from the former garden Zalizna Voda (Iron water) combining Snopkivska street with Novyi Lviv district. The park owes its name to the springs with high iron concentration. This beautiful park with ancient beech trees and numerous paths is a favourite place for many locals.
*Lychakivskyi Park, founded in 1892 and named after the surrounding suburbs. A botanic garden is situated on the park territory, founded in 1911 and occupying the territory of .
Sport
Lviv was an important centre for sport in Central Europe and is regarded as the birthplace of Polish Association football, football. Lviv is the Polish birthplace of other sports. In January 1905 the first Polish ice hockey, ice-hockey match took place there and two years later the first ski jumping, ski-jumping competition was organised in nearby Slavske, Sławsko. In the same year, the first Polish basketball games were organised in Lviv's gymnasiums. In autumn 1887 a gymnasium by Lychakiv Street (pol. ''ulica Łyczakowska'') held the first Polish track and field competition with such sports as the long jump and high jump. Lviv's athlete Władysław Ponurski represented Austria in the 1912 Summer Olympics, 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. On 9 July 1922 the first official rugby union, rugby game in Poland took place at the stadium of Pogoń Lwów in which the rugby team of Orzeł Biały Lwów divided itself into two teams – "The Reds" and "The Blacks". The referee of this game was a Frenchman by the name of Robineau.
![EURO 2012 Lvov clock](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/EURO_2012_Lvov_clock.jpg)
The first known official goal in a Polish football match was scored there on 14 July 1894 during the Lwów-Kraków game. The goal was scored by Włodzimierz Chomicki who represented the team of Lviv. In 1904 Kazimierz Hemerling from Lviv published the first translation of the rules of football into Polish and another native of Lviv, Stanisław Polakiewicz, became the first officially recognised Polish referee in 1911 the year in which the first Polish Football Association, Polish Football Federation was founded in Lviv.
The first Polish professional football club, Czarni Lwów opened here in 1903 and the first stadium, which belonged to Pogoń, in 1913. Another club, Pogoń Lwów, was four times football champion of Poland (1922, 1923, 1925 and 1926). In the late 1920s, as many as four teams from the city played in the Polish Football League (Pogoń, Czarni, Hasmonea and Lechia). Hasmonea Lwów, Hasmonea was the first Jewish football club in Poland. Several notable figures of Polish football came from the city including Kazimierz Górski, Ryszard Koncewicz, Michał Matyas and Wacław Kuchar.
In the period 1900–1911 opened the most famous football clubs in Lviv.
Professor Ivan Bobersky has based in the Academic grammar school the first Ukraine, Ukrainian sports circle where schoolboys were engaged in track and field, football, boxing, hockey, skiing, tourism and sledge sports in 1906.
He organised the "Ukrainian Sports circle" in 1908.
Much its pupils in due course in 1911 formed a sports society with the loud name "Ukraine" – the first Ukrainian football club in Lviv.
Lviv now has several major professional football team, football clubs and some smaller clubs. Two teams from the city, FC Rukh Lviv and FC Lviv, currently play in the Ukrainian Premier League, the top level of football in the country. FC Karpaty Lviv, founded in 1963, has historically been the largest club in the city. At the end of the 2019–20 Ukrainian Premier League season, Karpaty was expelled from the league for failing to appear to two games. They currently play in the Ukrainian Second League, the third level of Ukrainian football. Sometimes citizens of Lviv assemble on the central street (Freedom Avenue) to watch and cheer during outdoor broadcasts of games.
There are three major stadiums in Lviv. One of them is the Ukraina Stadium which is leased to FC Karpaty Lviv until 2018.
Arena Lviv is a brand-new football stadium that was an official venue for UEFA Euro 2012, Euro 2012 Championship games in Lviv. Construction work began on 20 November 2008 and was completed by October 2011. The opening ceremony took place on 29 October, with a vast theatrical production dedicated to the history of Lviv. Arena Lviv is the home ground of FC Lviv, and played host to Shakhtar Donetsk between 2014 and 2016 due to the ongoing War in Donbas (2014–2022), war in Donbas.
Lviv's chess school enjoys a good reputation; such notable grandmasters as Vassily Ivanchuk, Leonid Stein, Alexander Beliavsky, Andrei Volokitin used to live in Lviv. Grandmaster Anna Muzychuk lives in Lviv.
Lviv was originally Lviv bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, bidding to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, but has withdrawn and will now most likely bid for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Tourism
![Lvivrynok2018](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Lvivrynok2018.jpg)
Market (Rynok) Square is a major tourist attraction in Lviv.
Due to a comprehensive cultural programme and tourism infrastructure (having more than 8,000 hotel rooms, over 1300 cafes and restaurants, free WI-Fi zones in the city centre, and good connection with many countries of the world), Lviv is considered one of Ukraine's major tourist destinations.
[Two cities prepare for Euro 2012]
, BBC News (2 December 2011) The city had a 40% increase in tourist visits in the early 2010s; the highest rate in Europe.
The most popular tourist attractions include the Old Town (Lviv), Old Town, and the Market Square (Lviv), Market Square ( uk, Ploshcha Rynok) which is an square in the city centre where the Lviv Town Hall, City Hall is situated, as well as the Black House, Lviv, Black House ( uk, Chorna Kamyanytsia), Armenian Cathedral, Lviv, Armenian Cathedral, Dormition Church, Lviv, the complex of the Dormition Church which is the main Orthodox church in the city; Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church (Lviv), the St. Peter and Paul Church of the Jesuit Order (one of the largest churches in Lviv); along with the Korniakt Palace, now part of the Lviv History Museum.
Other prominent sites include the Latin Cathedral, Lviv, Latin Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary; St. George's Cathedral, Lviv, St. George's Cathedral of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Greek-Catholic Church; the Dominican Church, Lviv, Dominican Church of Corpus Christi; Chapel of the Boim family; the Lviv High Castle ( uk, Vysokyi Zamok) on a hill overlooking the centre of the city; the Union of Lublin Mound; the Lychakiv Cemetery, Lychakivskiy Cemetery where the notable people were buried; and the Svobody Prospekt which is Lviv's central street. Other popular places include
Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet
The Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet ( uk, Львівський Національний академічний театр опери та балету імені Соломії Крушельницької ...
, the
Potocki Palace, and the Bernardine Church, Lviv, Bernardine Church.
File:2019.08.25.1442.04. Львів пл.Соборна Церква св.Андрія.jpg, Bernardine Church, Lviv, Bernardine Church
File:P9173166 final.jpg, Dominican Church, Lviv, Dominican Church
File:Дворец Потоцких.jpg, Potocki Palace
File:StGeorgeCathedral Lviv.JPG, St. George's Cathedral, Lviv
File:LvivOldTown1.jpg, View on Old Town (Lviv), Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Popular culture
The native residents of the city are jokingly known as the Lvivian batiary (someone who's mischievous). Lvivians are also well known for their way of speaking that was greatly influenced by the Lwów dialect, Lvivian gwara (talk).
''Wesoła Lwowska Fala'' (Polish for ''Lwów's Merry Wave'') was a weekly radio program of the Polish Radio Lwow with ''Szczepko'' and ''Tonko'', later starring in ''Będzie lepiej'' and ''The Vagabonds (1939 film), The Vagabonds''. ''The Shoes of the Fisherman (novel), The Shoes of the Fisherman'', both Morris L. West's novel and its 1968 film adaptation, had the titular pope as having been its former archbishop.
Lviv has established many city feasts, such as coffee and chocolate feasts, cheese & wine holiday, the feast of pampukh, the Day of Batyar, Annual Bread Day and others. Over 50 festivals happen in Lviv, such as Leopolis Jazz Fest, an international jazz festival; the Leopolis Grand Prix, an international festival of vintage cars; international festival of academic music Virtuosi; Stare Misto Rock Fest; medieval festival Lviv Legend; international Etnovyr folklore festival, initiated by UNESCO; international festival of visual art Wiz-Art; international theatrical festival Golden Lion; Lviv Lumines Fluorescent Art Festival; Festival of Contemporary Dramaturgy; international contemporary music festival Contrasts; Lviv international literary festival, Krayina Mriy; gastronomic festival Lviv on a Plate; organ music festival Diapason; international independent film festival KinoLev; international festival LvivKlezFest; and international media festival MediaDepo.
Lviv honors the memory of Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych. The Lviv regional council approved an appeal to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on March 16, 2021, requesting that the largest stadium here be renamed after these two men. Bandera led the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which fought alongside Nazi Germany during WWII, killing thousands of Jews and Poles. In 1940, Shukhevych commanded a military unit of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) that actively collaborated with the Nazis.
Public transport
![Electron 1179 (2)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Electron_1179_%282%29.jpg)
Historically, the first horse-drawn tramway lines in Lviv were inaugurated on 5 May 1880. An electric tram was introduced on 31 May 1894. The last horse-drawn line was transferred to electric traction in 1908. In 1922 the tramways were switched to driving on the right-hand side. After the annexation of the city by the Soviet Union, several lines were closed but most of the infrastructure was preserved. The tracks are narrow gauge railway, narrow-gauge, unusual for the Soviet Union, but explained by the fact that the system was built while the city was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and needed to run in narrow medieval streets in the centre of town.
The Lviv tramway system now runs about 220 cars on of track. Many tracks were reconstructed around 2006. The price in February 2019 of a tram/trolleybus ticket was 5 UAH (the reduced fare ticket was 2.5 UAH, e.g. for students). The ticket may be purchased from the driver.
After World War II the city grew rapidly due to evacuees returning from Russia, and the Soviet Government's vigorous development of heavy industry. This included the transfer of entire factories from the Urals and others to the newly "liberated" territories of the USSR. The city centre tramway lines were replaced with trolleybuses on 27 November 1952. New lines were opened to the Tower block, blocks of flats at the city outskirts.
The network now runs about 100 trolleybuses – mostly of the 1980s Skoda 14Tr and :uk:ЛАЗ 52522, LAZ 52522. From 2006 to 2008 11 modern Low floor, low-floor trolleybuses (LAZ E183) built by the Lviv Bus Factory were purchased. The public bus network is represented by mini-buses (so-called ''marshrutka'') and large buses mainly LAZ and MAN. On 1 January 2013, the city had 52 public bus routes. The price is 7.00 UAH regardless of the distance travelled. The ticket may be purchased from the driver.
Railways
![Lviv railway station2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Lviv_railway_station2.png)
Modern Lviv remains a hub on which nine railways converge providing local and international services. Lviv railway is one of the oldest in Ukraine. The first train arrived in Lviv on 4 November 1861. The main Lviv Rail Terminal, Lviv Railway Station, designed by Władysław Sadłowski, was built in 1904 and was considered one of the best in Europe from both the architectural and technical aspects.
In the inter-war period, Lviv (known then as Lwów) was one of the most important hubs of the Polish State Railways. The Lwów junction consisted of four stations in mid-1939 – main station ''Lwów Główny'' (now uk, Lviv Holovnyi), Lwów Kleparów (now ''Lviv Klepariv''), ''Lwów Łyczaków'' (now ''Lviv Lychakiv''), and ''Lwów Podzamcze'' (now ''Lviv Pidzamche''). In August 1939 just before World War II, 73 trains departed daily from the Main Station including 56 local and 17 fast trains. Lwów was directly connected with all major centres of the Second Polish Republic as well as such cities as Berlin, Bucharest, and Budapest.
Currently, several trains cross the nearby Poland–Ukraine border, Polish–Ukrainian border (mostly via
Przemyśl
Przemyśl (; yi, פשעמישל, Pshemishl; uk, Перемишль, Peremyshl; german: Premissel) is a city in southeastern Poland with 58,721 inhabitants, as of December 2021. In 1999, it became part of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship; it was pr ...
in Poland). There are good connections to Slovakia (Košice) and Hungary (Budapest). Many routes have overnight trains with sleeping compartments. Lviv railway is often called the main gateway from Ukraine to Europe although buses are often a cheaper and more convenient way of entering the "Schengen Area, Schengen" countries.
Lviv used to have a Railbus, which has since been replaced with other means of public transport. It was a motor-rail car that ran from the largest district of Lviv to one of the largest industrial zones going through the central railway station. It made seven trips a day and was meant to provide a faster and more comfortable connection between the remote urban districts. The price in February 2010 of a one-way single ride in the railbus was 1.50 UAH. On 15 June 2010, the route was cancelled as unprofitable.
Air transport
The beginnings of aviation in Lviv reach back to 1884 when the Aeronautic Society was opened there. The society issued its own magazine ''Astronauta'' but soon ceased to exist. In 1909 on the initiative of Edmund Libanski the Awiata Society was founded. Among its members there was a group of professors and students of the
Lviv Polytechnic
Lviv Polytechnic National University ( ua, Націона́льний університе́т «Льві́вська політе́хніка») is the largest scientific university in Lviv, Ukraine. Since its foundation in 1816, it has bee ...
, including Stefan Drzewiecki and Zygmunt Sochacki. Awiata was the oldest Polish organization of this kind and it concentrated its activities mainly on exhibitions such as the ''First Aviation Exhibition'' which took place in 1910 and featured models of aircraft built by Lviv students.
In 1913–1914 brothers Tadeusz and Władysław Floriańscy built a two-seater aeroplane. When World War I broke out Austrian authorities confiscated it but did not manage to evacuate the plane in time and it was seized by the Russians who used the plane for intelligence purposes. The Floriański brothers' plane was the first Polish-made aircraft. On 5 November 1918, a crew consisting of Stefan Bastyr and Janusz de Beaurain carried out the first-ever flight under the Flag of Poland, Polish flag taking off from Lviv's Lewandówka (now uk, Levandivka) airport.
In the interbellum period Lwów was a major centre of gliding with a notable ''Gliding School'' in Bezmiechowa which opened in 1932. In the same year the Institute of Gliding Technology was opened in Lwów and was the second such institute in the world. In 1938 the ''First Polish Aircraft Exhibition'' took place in the city.
The interwar Lwów was also a major centre of the Polish Air Force with the Sixth Air Regiment located there. The Regiment was based at the Lwów airport opened in 1924 in the suburb of Skniłów (today uk, Sknyliv). The airport is located from the city centre.
In 2012, after renovation, Lviv Airport got a new official name Lviv International Airport, Lviv Danylo Halytskyi International Airport (LWO).
A new terminal and other improvements worth under a $200 million has been done in preparation for the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship. The connection from Airport to the city centre is maintained by bus No. 48 and No. 9.
Bicycle lanes
![LvivPolice2019](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/LvivPolice2019.jpg)
Cycling is a new but growing mode of transport in Lviv. In 2011 the City of Lviv ratified an ambitious 9-year program for the set-up of cycling infrastructure – until the year 2019 an overall length of cycle lanes and tracks shall be realized. A working group formally organised within the City Council, bringing together representatives of the city administration, members of planning and design institutes, local NGOs and other stakeholders. Events like the All-Ukrainian Bikeday or the European Mobility Week show the popularity of cycling among Lviv's citizens.
By September 2011, of new cycling infrastructure had been built. It can be expected that until the end of 2011 will be ready for use. The cycling advisor in Lviv – the first such position in Ukraine – is supervising and pushing forward the execution of the cycling plan and coordinates with various people in the city. The development of cycling in Ukraine is currently hampered by outdated planning norms and the fact, that most planners didn't yet plan and experience cycling infrastructure. The update of national legislation and training for planners is therefore necessary.
In 2015, the first stations have been set up for a new bike-sharing system Nextbike – the first of its kind in Ukraine. New bike lanes are also under construction, making Lviv the most bike-friendly city in the country. The City Council plans to build an entire cycling infrastructure by 2020, with cycle lanes () and street bike hire services.
Education
Lviv is an important education centre in Ukraine. The city contains a total of 12 university, universities, 8 academies and a number of smaller schools of higher education. In addition, within Lviv, there is a total of eight institutes of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, National Academy of Science of Ukraine and more than forty research institutes. These research institutes include the Lviv Centre of Institute for Space Research, Centre of Institute for Space Research; the Institute for Condensed Matter Physics; the Institute of Cell Biology; the National Institute of Strategic Studies; the Institute of Neuro-mathematical Simulation in Power Engineering; and the Institute of Ecology of the Carpathians.
In Soviet Union, Soviet times, the city of Lviv was the location where the software for the Lunokhod programme was developed. The technology for the Venera series probes and the first orbital shuttle Buran (spacecraft), Buran were also developed in Lviv.
A considerable scientific potential is concentrated in the city: by the number of doctors of sciences, candidates of sciences, scientific organisations Lviv is the fourth city in Ukraine. Lviv is also known for ancient academic traditions, founded by the Assumption Brotherhood School and the Jesuit Collegium. Over 100,000 students annually study in more than 50 higher educational establishments.
Educational level of residents:
*Basic and complete secondary education: 10%
*Specialized secondary education: 25%
*Incomplete higher education (undergraduates): 13%
*Higher education (graduates): 51%
*PhD (postgraduates): about 1%
Universities
*Lviv University, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (ukr. ''Львівський національний університет імені Івана Франка'')
*
Lviv Polytechnic
Lviv Polytechnic National University ( ua, Націона́льний університе́т «Льві́вська політе́хніка») is the largest scientific university in Lviv, Ukraine. Since its foundation in 1816, it has bee ...
(ukr. ''Національний університет "Львівська політехніка"'')
*Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University (ukr. ''Львiвський національний медичний унiверситет iм. Данила Галицького'')
*Lviv Stepan Gzhytsky national university of veterinary medicine and biotechnologies (ukr. ''Львівський національний університет ветеринарної медицини та біотехнологій імені Степана Гжицького'')
*National Forestry Engineering University of Ukraine (ukr. ''Український національний лісотехнічний університет'')
*Ukrainian Catholic University (ukr. ''Український католицький університет'')
*The Lviv National Academy of Arts (ukr. ''Львівська національна академія мистецтв'')
*Lviv National Agrarian University (ukr. ''Львівський національний аграрний університет'')
*Lviv State University of Physical Training (ukr. ''Львівський державний університет фізичної культури'')
*
Lviv Academy of Commerce
The Lviv University of Trade and Economics is a university in Lviv, Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the e ...
(ukr. ''Львівська комерційна академія'')
*Lviv State University of Life Safety (ukr. ''Львівський державний університет безпеки життєдіяльності'')
*Lviv State University of Interior (ukr. ''Львівський державний університет внутрішніх справ'')
Notable people
International relations
Twin towns and sister cities
See also
*List of Leopolitans
*Polish football clubs established in Lviv: Pogoń Lwów, Czarni Lwów, Lechia Lwów, Hasmonea Lwów
[Jakob Weiss, ''The Lemberg Mosaic'' (New York: Alderbrook Press, 2011) pp. 72 – 76.]
*Great Suburb Synagogue
*Win with the Lion
References
Bibliography
External links
*
Lviv.comOfficial travel website*
{{Authority control
Lviv,
Cities of regional significance in Ukraine
Cities in Lviv Oblast
Ruthenian Voivodeship
Rus' settlements
World Heritage Sites in Ukraine
Historic Jewish communities
Magdeburg rights
Populated places established in the 13th century
Recipients of the Virtuti Militari, !Lviv
Former capitals of Ukraine
13th-century establishments in Europe
Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia
Holocaust locations in Ukraine
Oblast centers in Ukraine
Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust