Lviv

"Lvov" redirects here. For the surname, see Lvov family.

Lviv (Ukrainian: Львів, L’viv [l^jviw], German: Lemberg; Polish: Lwów; [Львов, L'vov] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help); see also other names) is a major city in western Ukraine, the administrative center of Lviv Oblast, and is designated as its own separate raion (district) within the oblast. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine. It has 860,000 inhabitants, of which 88% are Ukrainians, 8% Russians and 1% Poles, with an additional 200,000 commuting daily from suburbs.

The city is home to many industries and institutions of higher education such as the Lviv University and the Lviv Polytechnic. It has a philharmonic orchestra and the Lviv Opera and Ballet Theater. The historic city centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage List and has many architectural wonders and treasures. Lviv celebrated its 750th anniversary in September of 2006, and has a lion as its emblem.

Geography

Location

Lviv is located on the verge of the Roztochia Upland, approximately seventy kilometres from the Polish border, and about 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the eastern Carpathian Mountains. Lviv's altitude averages 296 metres above sea level, although many hills rise up within the confines of the city. Its highest point is the Vysokyi Zamok (the High Castle), a hill of 409 metres above sea level. From the castle, one can attain a commanding view of the area and a look down upon the historic city center and its distinctive green domed churches and intricate architecture.

The old walled city was located at the foothills of the High Castle along the banks of the river Poltva. In the 13th century, the river was full of water, and used for commerce and transportation of goods. In the early 20th century, as the river became polluted, it was covered in areas where it flows through the city. The central street of Lviv, the Freedom Avenue (Prospect Svobody) runs right above the river, as well as the famous Opera House.

Climate

Lviv's climate is moderate continental. The average temperatures are −4°C (27°F) in January and +18°C (65°F) in June. Average annual rainfall is 660 milimeters (26 inches), with a notable water deficit in the summer months. Cloud coverage averages 66 days per year.

History

Main article: History of Lviv

The Old Town of Lviv with the Church of Transfiguration in the foreground.

Lviv was founded by King Danylo of the Ruthenian principality of Halych-Volhynia, and named in honor of his son, Lev. The city is first mentioned in Halych-Volhynian Chronicle from 1256 and became the capital of Halych-Volhynia. It was captured by Poland in 1349. In 1356, Casimir III of Poland brought in German burghers and granted the Magdeburg rights which implied that all city issues were to be solved by a city council, elected by the wealthy citizens. The city council seal of the 14th century stated: S(igillum): Civitatis Lembvrgensis. As part of Poland (and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), Lviv became the capital of the Ruthenian Voivodeship.

As the city prospered, Lviv became religiously and ethnically diverse. The 17th century brought invading armies of Swedes and Cossacks to the city's gates. In 1772, following the First Partition of Poland, the city known as Lemberg became the capital of the Austrian Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. During World War I, the city was captured by the Russian army in September of 1914, but was retaken in June of the following year by Austria-Hungary.

With the collapse of the Habsburg Empire at the end of World War I, the city became an arena of conflict between the local Ukrainian and Polish populations. Between the World Wars, Lviv was the second largest Polish city. Lviv and its population suffered greatly from the two world wars, the Holocaust, and the invading armies of the period. Today, Lviv remains one of the main centres of Ukrainian culture with much of the nation's political class originating from the area.

Government

Administrative division

Lviv is divided innto 6 distinct entities called raions (districts) with their own administrative bodies. The raions of Lviv include:

• Halytskyi (Галицький район)
• Zaliznychnyi (Залізничний район)
• Lychakivskyi (Личаківський район)
• Sykhivskyi (Сихівський район)
• Frankivskyi (Франківський район)
• Shevchenkivskyi (Шевченківський район)

Notable suburbs of the city include:

• Vynnyky (місто Винники)
• Briukhovychi (селище Брюховичі)
• Rudne (селище Рудне)

Transportation

Buses

The public bus network is not well-developed and the number of lines is limited. A cheap alternative to the public transport are the marshrutkas, small private mini-buses providing transport around the city and the suburbs where usual city buses would not travel. Marshrutkas do not have any fixed stops nor timetables, yet their services are relatively cheap, 1 hryvnia (20 US cents), fast, and efficient. The marshrutkas also run on suburban lines to most towns of the region including the line to Shehyni at the Polish border.

Tramways

A Lviv tram on a small cobblestone sidestreet in the Old Town.

Main article: Lviv tram

The first tramway lines in the city were opened on May 5, 1880. On May 31, 1894, the last horse-powered line was electrified. In 1922 the tramways were switched to right-hand-side system. After World War II and the annexation of the city by the Soviet Union, several lines were closed for service, yet most of the tramway infrastructure was preserved.

Currently, the Lviv tramway operates approximately 220 cars on 75 kilometres of track. Most of the tracks are in very poor condition, the trams themselves are in fair condition, and can be crowded and packed during rush hours. A simple distance-regardless tariffs system exists in Lviv's public transport: the tickets for ground transportation are bought for each entrance into the vehicle. Tram tickets costs a mere 50 kopecks (10 United States or 15 Euro cents).

Trolleybuses

After the war and the expulsion of the majority of the city's inhabitants, the city started to grow rapidly. This was due to an influx of evacuees returning from Russia at the war's end, and the program of development of heavy industry which was vigorously pursued by the Soviet Government. The latter included, in some cases, transplanting entire factories from the Ural region and other distant places into newly "freed" (acquired) territories of the USSR, including Lviv, the Baltic Republics, and other territories.

The cancelled tramway lines in the city centre were replaced with trolleybuses on November 27, 1952. In the later period new lines were opened for communication with the blocks-of-flats areas at the city outskirts. Currently the trolleybus network runs 200, mostly of the 1960s 14Tr type.

Railway

File:LwowDworzec.JPG

Lviv's Main Railway Terminal, an Art Nouveau style construction built in 1903 by Władysław Sadłowski.

Modern Lviv retains its nodal position, with nine railways converging on the city. There are many destinations, both within Ukraine and international. Most cities in Ukraine can be reached from the city's main train station. Due to the proximity of the Polish-Ukrainian border, there are several trains going to Poland (mostly via Przemyśl) for example the luxurious Kiev-Kraków link. There are good connections to Slovakia (Košice) and also Hungary (Budapest). The trains are slow for western standards, yet many of the routes have overnight trains with sleeping compartments. The prices are very cheap for western standards even though Ukraine had doubled the price recently, and a ticket to the western borders with Hungary or Slovakia of several hundred kilometers will just cost a few euros or dollars.

Airports

Aside from extensive railway connections, Lviv can be reached by air. The Lviv International Airport (LWO) lies only 6 km from the city center.

Culture

L’viv - the Ensemble of the Historic Centre

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Criteria	Cultural: ii, v
Reference	865
Inscription	1998 (22nd Session)

Since 1998, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization|United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) lists Lviv's historic center as part of "World Heritage." The UNESCO gave the following reasons for its selection:

Criterion ii: In its urban fabric and its architecture, Lviv is an outstanding example of the fusion of the architectural and artistic traditions of eastern Europe with those of Italy and Germany.

Criterion v: The political and commercial role of Lviv attracted to it a number of ethnic groups with different cultural and religious traditions, who established separate yet interdependent communities within the city, evidence for which is still discernible in the modern townscape.

Architecture

Lviv's historic churches, buildings and relics date back to the 13th century. Over the last few centuries, the city was spared some of the invasions and wars that destroyed many Ukrainian cities. Its architecture reflects various European styles and directions from different historical periods. After the fires of 1527 and 1556, Lviv lost most of its gothic-style buildings. It however retains a rich representation of structures built in the renaissance, baroque, and classic styles. Also represented are works by artists of the Vienna Secession, Art Nouveau, and Art Deco.

There is a good deal of stone carvings and sculptures to be seen on the buildings, the remains of ancient castles and old churches in various styles dot the central cityscape, and some of the 3-5 story buildings have hidden inner courtyards and grottos in various states of repair or disrepair. Many times the old large thick doors themselves on the buildings, with fine carving and woodwork dating from hundreds of years before, are enough to engage the attentions and imaginations of passersbys. As well, some of the cemeteries attract note, and visitors from other nearby countries come sometimes specifically to see the Lychakivskiy Cemetery. Once one leaves the central area of Lviv there is a radical change in the architectural style and Soviet-era high rises then dominate the landscape, yet within the city center, the main trappings of note from the Soviet era are a handful of modern style national monuments and sculptures.

The Lviv Opera and Ballet Theater, an important cultural center for residents and visitors.

There has been some concern about preservation of the city's architecture. For example, architectural sculptures are looted and resold, residents cut new doorways into historic facades, historic architectural monuments are allowed to crumble due to effects of climate and human neglect. Weakening from the layers of impurities deposited on the facades of buildings and the runoff that seeps into their stonework from the marshy subsoil below, the city faces a literal erosion of its history. There is much work going on with some of the buildings, yet there are so many buildings in need of restoration, and Lviv clearly only has so much money to spend on such things, that it is difficult for the city to maintain them all in the manner necessary. There are many large chunks and blocks of the oldest buildings sometimes sitting next to them on the sidewalks.

One notes old cobblestone streets in many areas of the historic center, oftentimes in need of repair and better suited to pedestrians than bicycles and vehicles. In some areas, one sees cobblestone roads with repair patches of asphalt, and often parts of the road, with little drainage system, retain large puddles of water after rains that the cars must plunge through.

Religion

The front façade of the St. George's Cathedral, which belongs to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Lviv is an important religious center in Ukraine. The city is the main center of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukraine, and until August 21, 2005 — the center for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. About 35% of all religious structures belong to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, 11.5% belong to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, about 9% belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate, and about 6% — to the Roman Catholic Church.

Up to 2005, Lviv was the only city where there were two Cardinals: Lubomyr Husar (UGCC) and Marian Jaworski (RCC).

In June of 2001, Pope John Paul II visited Lviv. He visited the Latin Cathedral, St. George's Cathedral, and the Armenian Cathedral.

Museums and art galleries

There are many museums and art galleries in Lviv, most notable are the National Gallery, Museum of Religion (formerly Museum of Atheism) and National Museum (formerly Museum of Industry).

Sport

Historically, Lviv was one of the most important centres of sports in Central Europe. The first professional football club, Czarni Lwów, was opened in 1903, and the first stadium was opened in 1913. Currently, Lviv is home to several major professional football clubs and a number of smaller clubs. FC Karpaty Lviv, founded in 1963, plays in the first division of Ukrainian Premier League. Sometimes, the youth of Lviv concentrate on the central street, Freedom Avenue, to watch and cheer an outdoor broadcast of the games.

Films and books featuring Lviv

Portions of Schindler's List were shot in the Lviv city center, as it was less expensive to do so than in Kraków.

Part of the Austrian road-movie Blue Moon were shot in various parts of Lviv. The movie "Everything is Illuminated" by Jonathan Safran Foer, has some scenes from the train station in Lviv.

Brian R.Banks' Muse & Messiah: The Life, Imagination & Legacy of Bruno Schulz (1892-1942) contains several pages discussing the history and cultural-social life of the city and its region from earliest time. A CD-Rom included with the book contains the first English map of nearby Drohobych with many old and new photographs.

Economy

The rapidly growing Lviv economy is an emerging market. It has a relatively large population, and is one of the biggest cities in Ukraine. The currency is the hryvnia (UAH), and is further divided into 100 kopecks per 1 UAH. In early 2007, 1 US dollar = about 5 UAH and 1 Euro = about 6 UAH.

The current city economy is an example of a post-Soviet era developing city. Lviv has many issues, such as problems with infrastructure, streets in disrepair, pollution, including heavy downtown car pollution during the weekdays, some local corruption, and irregularities in water supply with especially a difficulty for many residents to obtain hot water.

According to the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, the average salary in the Lviv Oblast is a bit smaller than the average Ukrainian salary, which as of September 2006 was about 1004.1 UAH or roughly 200 USD.

City	Country	Year
Corning, New York	United States	1987
Kraków	Poland
Winnipeg	Canada	1973
Wrocław	Poland
Eskilstuna	Sweden	1994
Banja Luka	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Novi Sad	Serbia	1999
Freiburg	Germany	1989
Saint Petersburg	Russia	2006
Kutaisi	Georgia

In 2006, Ukraine's economic freedom was rated at 3.24, where a rating of one is deemed relatively more free than a rating of five points. According to the World Bank classification, Lviv is a lower middle-income city.

Despite its challenges, the city is bustling and there is great energy on the streets. The streets are crammed with vendors hawking their wares from vegetables and fruits, meats and pastries, to books, clothes, traditional cultural items, and tourist gifts, now that the Soviet-era system has been abandoned. There are many restaurants, and shops as well as those that sell all manner of goods including expensive top of the line western made goods and appliances.

There is an interesting mixture of the past and modern times in Lviv, with peasants from the countryside selling their wares sitting outside, next to a cell phone shop in a medieval building with the latest Nokia phones on display, for instance.

Banking and money trading is a big industry as well with many banks and exchange offices scattered throughout the city, and this attests to the success the people of Lviv have made in the difficult transition from the soviet era economy to a market-oriented economy.

Education

The front façade of the Lviv University, the oldest university in Ukraine.

Main article: List of universities in Ukraine

Lviv is one of the most important education centres of Ukraine. It is home to three major universities and a number of smaller schools of higher education. There are 8 institutes of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine, more than 40 research institutes, 3 academies and 11 state-owned colleges.

Universities

• Lviv University – (Львівський національний університет імені Івана Франка)
• Lviv Polytechnic – (Національний університет "Львівська політехніка")
• Ukrainian Catholic University – (Український Католицький Університет )

Tourist attractions

File:Lvivcity.jpg

The 750 year old city in the spring.

• the Old Town
  • Ploshcha Rynok Market Square; 185,000 square metres.
    • Black House
  • Armenian Cathedral
  • Orthodox Cathedral with Korniakt Bell Tower
  • Latin Cathedral "Assumption of Mary"
  • St. George's Cathedral of the Greek-Catholic Church
  • Dominican Church "Corpus Christi"
  • Chapel of Boim family
• Lviv High Castle hill overlooking the historical centre
  • Union of Lublin mound
• Lychakivskiy Cemetery

750th Anniversary

In September 2006, Lviv celebrated 750 years of history. One of the largest events was a light show around the Lviv Opera House.

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See also

• List of famous Leopolitans
• Polish football clubs in Lviv (pl.): Pogoń Lwów, Czarni Lwów, Lechia Lwów

External links

• city-adm.lviv.ua — Official city website Template:Uk icon
• lviv.ua — Directory of Lviv-related websites
• Lviv Rail Terminal — Official Website
• FC Karpaty Lviv — Official website