Киев – Днепропетровск – Донецк – Запорожье – Харьков

+38 (044) / 235-53-53

Меню

Lviv is a major city in western Ukraine.

It is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine and historically also for Ukraine’s neighbour Poland. Historic center of Lviv with its old buildings and cobblestone roads has survived the Second World War and the Soviet presence largely unscathed. In 2001 Lviv had 725,000 inhabitants, of whom 88 percent were Ukrainians, 9 percent Russians (under 1 percent in 1931, 16 percent in 1989) and 1 percent Poles (63.5% in 1931. Most Poles were deported from Lviv by the Soviet authorities in 1945). A further 200,000 people commuted daily from suburbs. The city has many industries and institutions of higher education such as the Lviv University and the Lviv Polytechnic. It has a philharmonic orchestra and The Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet. The historic city centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Lviv celebrated its 750th anniversary with a son et lumière in the city centre in September 2006.

It was established in the early 1200s during the reign of Ukraine-Ruthenian at that time prince Danylo (crowned in 1253) in honour of his son Lev and initially belonged to the Kievan Rus' who had been in the Kiev area since 800 AD and are considered the ancestors of Ukraine. For many centuries it was fought over and incorporated into different countries and empires. In 1349 the region was seized by the Poles under Kazimierz III and subsequently was governed as part of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1772 it was incorporated into Austro-Hungary during the First Partition of Poland and, known, in German, as Lemberg, was the capital of the Austrian Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Following the downfall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I Lviv was, for a short time, the capital of the Western Ukrainian Republic. Poland was reconstituted shortly after World War I and eventually Lviv was incorporated into the Second Polish Republic.

In 1939 the second world war brought changes of governance and as a result of the joint German-Soviet-Slovak invasion of Poland, Lviv was annexed by the Soviet Union on 17 September 1939 and was part of the Ukrainian SSR for two years. There were several years of German occupation, from June 1941 to July 1944, when it was recaptured by the Soviet Red Army on 26 July 1944 and returned to the Ukrainian SSR. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it became part of the independent Ukraine, for which it currently serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast, and designated as its own raion (district) within that oblast.

On June 12, 2009 the Ukrainian magazine Focus assessed Lviv as the best Ukrainian city.