Lviv is a truly enchanting city with a vivid past and long tradition as the most multicultural city in Galicia, the historic region of present-day Western Ukraine and Southern Poland.

Text and photos by Monika Greszta. Click on the icon above to listen to the audio report.

Located along trade routes between the East and the West, Lviv was home to Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, Jews, Armenians, Germans and Austrians. For many centuries it was the centre of European events, being a part of the Polish Kingdom, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Western Ukrainian Republic, Second Polish Republic and the USSR. During World War II it was occupied by the Nazis and then by Soviet troops. In 1991, Lviv became a part of independent Ukraine.

Lviv Central Station

Lviv Central Station At 6 am, with my eyes half closed but my mind wide open, I get off a train which brought me to Lviv from Krakow. Six hours of a pleasant journey and, here I am, in the very heart of Western Ukraine. Women dressed in colourful clothes and equipped with enormous baskets full of strawberries and cherries emerge from the fog hanging over the deserted platform. The city is still asleep, but the merchants, who rush to open their stalls on the streets of Lviv, are not. I walk across the Lviv Central Station, which recalls the times of the Habsburg Empire. Built in 1904, it is one of the finest examples of Art Nouveau in Galicia: stained glass windows, bent steel railings and ornaments bear resemblance to Parisian metropolitan and revive the unique ambience of the fin de siecle. A few steps past the main entrance, the shining interior paved with polished marble suddenly turns into a dusty sidewalk with uneven flagstones. Accompanied by stray dogs, I head towards a round building – perched on a concrete leg – used by traffic wardens. It looks like an abandoned flying saucer which accidentally landed in Lviv. From there I jump on a bright blue tram, punch a ticket and off I go through the narrow, winding streets of old Lviv, packed with ancient buildings.

A tram in Lviv

Kriyvka bar I start my visit in Lviv from Kryivka, one of the most controversial venues in the city. It is a  themed restaurant which pays tribute to the partisans of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), an underground force which fought a brutal war against the Nazis, Soviets and Poles throughout the 1940s. Aware of an unusual “opening ceremony” at the restaurant, which refers to Ukrainian nationalism, I knock at the solid wooden door. “Are you a Russian?” asks a voice on the other side. I deny that I am. “A Jew?”. “No”. “A Traitor?” continues the voice, trying to make sure I’ll be a proper guest at the UPA hideout. I deny again and the door finally opens. I see a guard in battledress with a machine gun in his hand. “Password!” demands the guard. “Glory to Ukraine!” I reply. “Glory to its Heroes!” responds the guard and treats me with a shot of medovuha, home made honey vodka. I look around: the dimmed interior is adorned with Ukrainian flags, yellowed photos of Ukrainian partisans, revolutionary posters and machine guns. Instead of a menu, I receive a partisan newspaper, from which I learn not only about meals served at Kryivka, which are likened to the kind of food soldiers would receive from a mess kitchen, but also, how to use a machine gun or how to build a shelter.

Lychakovsky cemetery

Lychakovsky cemetery After a substantial dose of Ukrainian history, I make my way to Lviv’s City of the Dead to find traces of Lviv’s cosmopolitan past. Since the 18th century Lychakovsky cemetery has been the final resting place of Lviv’s most prominent citizens. In elegant tombs, submerged in lavish green vegetation, Austrian aristocrats lie alongside Napoleonic generals, Polish professors and artists, and Ukrainian and Soviet heroes. I end my crash course on Lviv’s history at the cemetery of the Lwow Eaglets, young Polish soldiers who defended Lviv against Ukrainian nationalists during the Polish-Ukrainian War in 1918-19. Today, mortal enemies lie side by side and two memorials bring up bitter memories of the battles. I’m strolling through hundreds of white crosses with Polish surnames engraved on them. Suddenly, I can hear shooting and combat screams. Shocked and puzzled I look around and discover that on the verge of the cemetery several dozen men clad in battledress are running across a pitch shooting at each other with paintball machine guns.

Lviv. Plosha Rynok

Plosha Rynok From the cemetery, I head towards the Market Square at the heart of the old town. A Viennese-looking town hall, located in the centre of the square, is surrounded by beautiful town houses built in every imaginable style: Baroque, Renaissance, Rococo, neo-Classical. Buildings, with yellow, rust, pale green and brown facades, once belonged to nobility and wealthy merchants. The most impressive of all is the Black House, built in the 16th century for an Italian tax collector. As I’m walking along the Plosha Rynok, I suddenly spot an odd “couple” – a woman accompanied by a huge pig. “Here? In the centre of Lviv?” I can hardly believe my eyes. Apparently I’m not the only one, as there are a few people who are curiously peeping at the pig. “Come and have a photo with a pig” the woman encourages tourists and the animated pig grunts encouragingly. Around the corner, a blind accordionist is playing a well-known Polish song Tylko we Lwowie (Only in Lviv). I cannot help thinking that certain things, indeed, happen only in Lviv.

Citizens of Lviv

Mickiewicz Square Meandering along cobblestone streets lined with centuries-old buildings covered with flaking paint and picturesque churches of various faiths, I reach the statue of Adam Mickiewicz, the greatest Polish Romantic poet. Here, my tour of literary and artistic Lviv starts. I enter Hotel George, the most renowned hotel in the city, located near the monument. Its blue vestibule recalls a fine, regal past. This Neo-Renaissance building, erected in 1901, hosted such celebrities as the Habsburg Emperor Franz Josef, French writer Honore de Balzak, and Jozef Pilsudski, head of the Second Polish Republic. Hungarian composer Franz Liszt conducted the Lviv Philharmonic and Polish opera singer Jan Kiepura sang his arias from the balcony in Hotel George

An accordionist in Lviv

Prospekt Svobody I leave Hotel George behind and walk along Prospekt Svobody (Freedom Avenue), a wide, tree-lined esplanade with restaurants and outdoor cafes along both sides. Suddenly, I spot an old woman in a navy blue dress, bright yellow jacket and a scarf. She is running along the avenue with a bunch of brushwood in her hand. “Wiera! Come here!” screams the woman and waves to a similar-looking babushka. “What does she need the wood for?” I wonder, and, after a while, I receive my answer. Wiera comes with a piece of string and two women make a broom to sweep the street. It strikes me that here, in Lviv, the waste disposal service is operated by very old people who, elsewhere, would long be retired. I stop at the monument of Taras Shevchenko, one of the most renowned Ukrainian poets, and immediately get accosted by an elegant elderly lady. “Are you Ukrainian?” she asks. “No. I’m Polish”. “Ah…Polish” she echoes my words and instantly switches into my mother tongue. I learn that she is a retired Polish language and literature teacher and is collecting money for an operation. “Please buy it,” - she hands me a pocket album with photos of Lviv. I hesitate. “C’mon. It’s only a ten-spot!” she tries to encourage me. Amazed with her use of colloquial Polish, I finally reach for a Ukrainian ten hryvnia banknote. “I meant Polish zloty, not Ukrainian hryvnia,” says the woman. At that point I’m impressed with both - her language and marketing skills.

The Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet

The Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet At the end of Prospekt Svobody is the Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet, a majestic, richly-decorated building in the neoclassical style, built in 1900. The theatre, which resembles similar venues in Paris and Vienna, can accommodate 1,000 people. Its internal, breath-taking decoration was designed by the most renowned Polish sculptors and painters. In front of the theatre, in the shadow of chestnut trees, old men are playing chess and dominos on park benches. For a moment, I join the crowd of spectators who are taking bets. Looking at the players and their supporters, I suddenly realize that most of the faces that I’ve seen that day, are very wrinkled. Indeed, Lviv is a city of old people.

Lviv. Dzyga Cultural Centre

Armenian district Around the corner from the theatre, entering the Armenian district of Lviv, I come across a market where women in scarves sell antiquities, colourful jewellery, traditional embroidered shirts, old books and folk toys. I walk across the market, accompanied by the shrieks of saleswomen praising their goods and stop at the Armenian Cathedral, one of the city’s oldest buildings, erected in 1363. I gaze up at the beautiful frescos on the ceiling and at the walls of the cathedral, largely the work of Jan Rosen and Jozef Mehoffer, and admire the arcade gallery outside the building and a magnificent wooden sculpture from the 18th century, which depicts the Crucifixion of Christ on Golgotha. I think of the Armenians, a nation of wanderers and merchants, in the past called “the Jews of the East”, who settled down in Ukraine as early as the 10th century and still form a part of Ukrainian society. Leaving the Armenian district, I visit the Dzyga Cultural Center, a modern art gallery housed in the former Dominican monastery of an 18th-century Baroque church. It is the heart of bohemian life in Lviv, attracting mainly young people. In the outdoor café on the patio, I meet a group of students from the southern city of Chernivtsi, who came here to see an exhibition of Vlodko Kaufman called “Ptakhoterapy” and to feel the ambience of the artistic mecca of Lviv. While we are talking about Ukrainian music in mixed Polish, Russian and Ukrainian, I notice that every girl who passes, takes a photo of herself with a sculpture of a green fish. “Why is the fish so popular among women?” I ask. “It ensures love and early marriage,” responds Irena and shows me her photo with the “magic” fish.

Lviv

Jewish district I end my visit in Lviv in the Jewish district. The Jewish community in Galicia was the largest in the world until World War II and the Golden Rose Synagogue was at the centre of Jewish culture in Lviv. It was built in 1582 and destroyed by the Nazis, only the eastern wall survived. Yaroslav, who runs a Jewish restaurant in Lviv, tells me a legend about the synagogue. “The Golden Rose synagogue was named after Rose Nachmanovich, daughter-in-law of a prominent Jew, Isaac Nachmanovich. She was a very refined and beautiful woman. At that time, the Jesuit order was active in Lviv and the whole Jewish district belonged to the Catholic Church. Rose wanted to build a synagogue there. Legend has it that the Jesuits seized the area, so Rose went to a bishop to beg him to return the land to the Jews. When the bishop saw her, he said: “I will let you build a synagogue only if you spend a night with me”. Rose agreed and the Jewish commune was allowed to build a synagogue. At dawn, when the bishop woke up, he found Rose dead, as she had poisoned herself”. After a short lesson on the Jewish community in Lviv, I enter “Under the Golden Rose” restaurant. The dark interior is lit with seven-armed candlesticks called menorahs and Jewish music is wafting from the speakers. I order the speciality of the house: homemade vodka called pesahivka and goose livers. I’m a bit confused as I cannot find prices on the menu and, after a while, I learn that I've ended up in a unique venue in Lviv where the price of a meal depends on the bargaining skills of the client. So, according to the custom, I haggle with the waitress, employing all possible methods to persuade her that my meal should cost less than she demands. At the end, excited and proud of my bargaining skills, I leave the restaurant, and, under cover of night and rain, I run to the Central Station to catch a midnight train back to Krakow.

Lviv

HOW TO GET TO LVIV The overnight PKP Intercity train Wroclaw-Krakow-Lviv will take you from Krakow to Lviv in only six hours. It departs from Krakow at 10.39 pm and arrives at Lviv at 6.03 am. The train goes back to Krakow at 23:59 so one can spend 18 hours visiting Lviv and save on accommodation. The cost of a return ticket is 87.80 euro per person in a two-person compartment.

HOW TO TRAVEL IN THE CITY The cheapest and most comfortable way of traveling is by tram. A single ticket from Lviv Central Station to the Old Town costs only 9 euro cents. A taxi, covering the same route, costs approximately 2.60 euro.

WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK

Kryjivka bar, bread with lard costs 70 euro cents, borsch 1 euro, beer also 1 euro, medovuha – the traditional honey vodka – 1.22 euro.

Videnska Kavyarnya, 12 Prospekt Svobody, a Viennese style restaurant with a patio, one of the finest in Lviv. The main dish costs 2.00-6.50 euro, traditional potato pancakes with white cheese and sour cream are 1.90 euro, and tea is 1 euro.

Dzyga Cultural Center, 35 Virmenska Street, a contemporary art gallery and bar. Home-style toasted bread with veal tongue, pickled mushrooms and cucumbers for 1 euro, Ukrainian bread sour costs 60 euro cents. 

Under the Golden Rose, 37 Staroyevrayska Street, a Jewish restaurant. Speciality of the house – pesehivka vodka, goose liver, blintzes - Jewish style pancakes. You can negotiate the price of your meal.

Café Veronika, 21 Shevchenka Street, a Viennese style café with fabulous cakes. The main dish is about 2.00-8.70 euro, with a coffee latte for 1.30 euro.