Lviv

Rynok, Lviv, Ukraine

Lviv has a charming downtown which is not affected by the concrete buildings of the Soviet era (this kind of architecture is not an exclusive characteristic of the Soviet empire). The heart of the old town is Market Sq (Rynok).

The city walls were built along the Poltava river. In the late 19th century the polluted river was covered and the city walls were demolished. (Like the Ring Strasse in Vienna, the Kiskorut in Budapest or the Plantik in Krakow.) One of the most important streets of the downtown runs above the river. The Opera house and the National Museum are both located here.

Lviv (Ukrainian: Львів, German: Lemberg; Polish: Lwów; Russian: Львов, Hungarian: Lemberg or Ilyvó) is a western Ukranian city.
The city was founded by King Danylo of the Ruthenian duchy of Halych-Volhynia, and it was named in honor of his son, Lev (Lion). It was an important city of Poland (and later Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) and also the capital of the Ruthenian Voivodeship.

After the First Partition of Poland (1772) Lemberg became the capital of the Austrian Kingdom of Galicia. After the collapse of the Habsburg Empire the city became Polish again; it was part of the Second Polish Republic and was the second Polish city between the word wars. After the WWII it was part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (within the Soviet Union).

The political and commercial role of Lviv attracted different ethnic groups with different cultural and religious traditions. When the first university was opened (1784), the lectures were held in Latin, German, Polish and Ukrainian. The city also had a huge Jewish population.