Lviv Revisited

By Walter Kish

During the past several weeks, wearing my hat as president of the UNF Oshawa Branch, I have been busy preparing for an upcoming movie night where we will be screening the superb film A Kingdom Reborn – Treasures from Galicia.  Through the prism of art, architecture and music, this documentary movie traces the rich history of Western Ukraine or Halychyna as it is better known to its inhabitants. Justifiably though, much of the film centres on the magical city of Lviv.

Although the name Halychyna is derived from its original capital, the town of Halych, for most of the past eight hundred years or so, the heart and soul of Western Ukraine has been Lviv, the “City of Lions”.  People had been living on the banks of the Poltva River on the city’s original site since time immemorial and it was only in the Thirteenth Century that the city started to take on significance after Prince Danylo Halytsky built a castle (Vysokiy Zamok) on the high hill overlooking the river.  When Danylo died, his son Lev, after whom the city is named, made Lviv the capital of the principality of Halych-Volhynia.

It soon became a major commercial and cultural centre of Central Europe, with a diverse cosmopolitan population that included Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, Lithuanians, Armenians, Germans, Italians, Hungarians, Czechs and many others.  Over the centuries, it changed hands many times and was a prominent hub of both the Polish Kingdom and Austro-Hungarian Empire.

As readers of this column know, I have written about Lviv many times. It holds a special place in my personal past and my memories have been significantly enriched by its unique presence and character.  I have had the good fortune of living there for a time. Many pleasant days and evenings have been spent exploring its historic cobble-stoned streets and squares, its fascinating churches, palaces, historical buildings and museums, its eclectic parks and cemeteries and bustling markets.  I have whiled away many a pleasant hour in its Bohemian cafs and medieval taverns.

Lviv has its own special character and atmosphere.  To be sure, there are similarities to other well preserved historical Central European cities such as Prague, Budapest, Krakow and Vienna, yet it is nonetheless, distinctly different. Each of these other cities is impressive in their well preserved historical character, but they tend to be fairly homogenous in representing their distinctly dominant Bohemian, Hungarian, Polish or Austrian antecedents.  Lviv, on the other hand is a rich mixture of all of the above and then some.  Nowhere else in Europe will you find such a breadth of historical, cultural, artistic and philosophical influences.

Lviv today is the immensely interesting end product of a long series of diverse historical forces and events that shaped its turbulent past.  Each left a distinct imprint on both the appearance of the place as well as the inherited ethos and culture.  To walk its streets is to experience its history.  What remains of its ancient walls stand testimony to the Mongols, the Kozaks, the Poles, the Swedes, the Hungarians, the Russians, the Turks, the Austrians, the Germans and all the others who at one time or another tried to make it part of their dominions. 

In the end, they all failed.  Today, like eight hundred years ago in the days of Prince Danylo Halytsky, Lviv is once again a Ukrainian city.  Yet, the turmoil and tragedy that the city experienced also added to its architectural, cultural and artistic legacy, a legacy that is now ours to enjoy and to treasure.

I have travelled widely and seen virtually every corner of Ukraine.  There are no shortages of fascinating places both historic and geographic in this ancestral country of ours.  However, none have touched me on both an emotional as well as intellectual level as much as Lviv. If you are a Ukrainian, a pilgrimage to Lviv is well warranted.