Interesting facts about Lviv

Lviv was once the largest city in Ukraine

Lviv was the largest city of Ukraine. It was in the distant XVI-XVII centuries. Now, the city is officially the seventh largest in terms of population in Ukraine. More than 800,000 residents officially live here. And Lviv is the most densely populated city in Ukraine, and even in Europe. It is even compared in this regard with Strasbourg.

The royal city of Lviv

The city was founded by the king

The city appeared probably in the 13th century. (the first mention of the city dates back to 1256) and is far from the oldest in Ukraine. Its founder is the first Ukrainian king in history, Danylo Romanovych (now known as Danylo Halytskyi). He named the city after his eldest son Leo. By the way, Danylo’s mother was the daughter of the Byzantine emperor. It should be mentioned here that for a long time, Byzantium refused to be related to its neighbors. And she did it extremely exceptionally.

Lviv as the capital of the kingdom

Lviv was twice the capital of the kingdom

in the 13th-14th centuries, when it was the capital of the Russian kingdom

and in 1772-1918, when it was the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lyodomer, which was part of the Austrian Empire

**The borders of Austrian Galicia are highlighted in red**

Very close to Europe

Lviv is open to the world and friendly to people!

This is the slogan of modern Lviv, which symbolizes the openness and friendliness of the residents and an incredible atmosphere. But it was always like that. Thus, in medieval Lviv, there were quarters of Jews, Ukrainians, Armenians, and Catholics. Among the latter were Italians, Germans, and Poles. Many Bulgarians and Greeks, also Orthodox, lived in Ukrainian quarters. At the beginning of Lviv’s history, the quarter of the Saracens, apparently Tatars and Karaites, is mentioned.

In the center of Eastern Europe

The city is at a distance of 50 km. from the border with the European Union. At a distance of about 500 km from three capitals:

Kyiv (Ukraine),
Warsaw (Poland),
Budapest (Hungary).

King Danylo Halytskyi Airport is one of the largest in Eastern Europe

It is located 6 km from the city center. Opened in 2012

Lviv was part of nine states

Galicia-Volyn principality, which is also known as the Russian kingdom
Kingdom of Poland,
Austro-Hungarian Empire,
of the Russian Empire, briefly during the First World War,
of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic,
Poland,
Under Nazi occupation,
of the Soviet Union,
of independent Ukraine.

**The declared territory of ZUNR on the map of the modern borders of Europe**

Software for Hollywood films is made in Lviv

Few people know that the special effects for the films “Spiderman”, “Harry Potter”, “Hulk” and many others are created in Lviv. Also, according to a study by the KPMG company, Lviv was identified as one of the most promising cities in the world in terms of IT development.

Lviv is a city of students

Every fifth person in Lviv is a student. In particular, there are about 170,000 students in the city. And also a dozen universities. The largest are Ivan Franko LNU and Lviv Polytechnic.

Lviv as a religious center

The center of one of the most religious regions of Ukraine

There are 104 functioning temples in the city and several dozen more are under construction.

Church capital

Here are the main churches of both the Catholic and Armenian Apostolic Churches in Ukraine.

It has not been a Catholic city for a long time

Whoever goes to the city, as a Catholic one, eventually realizes that it is only an echo of its history. Most Lviv residents belong to the UGCC (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church), which has Eastern, that is, Orthodox rites. Although there are 37 churches left from the Catholic period, which now function as churches of other denominations, only three continue to serve Catholic communities.

An interesting example of adapting a Catholic church to the Greek Catholic Church. To make the old Catholic altar-canopy visible, the only transparent iconostasis with stained-glass icons was created in Ukraine.

The photo shows former Catholic churches, which are now Greek-Catholic churches:

Sport

There are 2 professional football clubs in Lviv

FC Karpaty and FC Lviv. Also, Lviv is a home city for the Ukrainian national football team, because it has never lost here.

The first football match between Ukraine and Poland took place in Lviv

On July 14, 1894, a game between the teams of Lviv and Krakow took place on the territory of Stryi Park, which became an official match on the territory of Ukraine and Poland. The Lviv team won.

**Пам’ятники першому футбольному матчу**. Стрийський парк

Tourism

Lviv is the new tourist mecca of Eastern Europe

Annually, the number of tourists grew by 15-20%. The number of tourists reached one million per year. Most often, tourists from Poland, Germany, France, Canada, and Japan go to Lviv.

Lviv has the largest number of architectural monuments in Ukraine

In particular, 2,500 monuments of history and architecture have been preserved in the city. In addition, since 1998, the center of Lviv has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. For a long time, only Lviv had such an honor in Ukraine. In 2023, Odesa joined.

More than 100 festivals take place in the city every year

Festivals of classical music, street theater, coffee, chocolate, and pampukh festivals are traditional in Lviv. Also, for two years, one of the world’s largest jazz festivals takes place in Lviv.

Lviv has the largest concentration of museums in the country

There are several dozen museums in the city. There are eleven of them only on Rynok Square.

Lviv smells of coffee

A habit that was introduced in Eastern Europe by Yuriy Kulchytskyi, a native of the Lviv noble village, and still does not let Lviv residents go. By the way, the hetman Petro Sahaidachny, who captured Moscow together with the Polish hetman Stanislav Zholkevskiy, came from the village of Kulchytsi.