Lviv In History

article prepared by Irina Timchenko

There have been many attempts to explain how the name Lviv was given to the city. Old chronicles say that Lviv was founded by the Prince of Galicia and Volyn Danylo Romanovych in 1256. He named the town in honour of his son Lev. Other sources provide different explanations, trying to relate the name with the Slavonic word "лев" which means "lion", to associate it with bravery and heroism of its citizens. Whatever is really true, each visitor will agree that the city is really old and has known the times of power and glory.

The centre of old Lviv was located in the area of today's Old Rynok Square. Due to its connvenient location on the crossroads of trade routes, Lviv quickly grew into an important centre of commerce and crafts. Because it was founded in the center of Galicia-Volyn principality, the town had a considerable strategic value. In 1272, Prince Lev moved the capital of the principality from Galych to Lviv.

In 1349, Lviv was captured by the Polish King Kazimierz, who ordered to move the town a bit to the south. The new town was built to the plan of a traditional European settlement: central square was surrounded by residential quarters and fortifications.

In those days, war was the main source of wealth. Tatars, Moldavians, Turks and rebellious Polish would take turns to attack Lviv, so defence measures were a vital matter. The system of fortifications was completed by 1445 - Higher and Lower Defence Walls with a ditch between them, and a deep moat filled with water was established to protect the town. A 16-meter high defence rampart with so-called High and Low Castles was also constructed. However, with the invention of firearms, such fortifications became insufficient, so they were altered again and again through time. High walls were replaced by lower and thicker ones; towers with narrow embrasures were replaced with basteas (semicircular defence structures with an open space in place of a roof on the top). Two of these fortification constructions have been preserved until the present day in Pidvalna Street and in Brativ Rogatyntsiv Street. The earthworks became very common, as well. The last significant addition to the town defence system was the Royal Arsenal, constructed in 1639-1669, which is now visited by numerous tourists at 13, Pidvalna Street.

The High Castle built by the Polish King Kazimierz III, heavily fortified and located on a steep hill, 300 metres high, remained inaccessible for more than 300 years. Only in 1648, the High Castle was seized for the first time, by the Cossacks of Maxym Kryvonis. In 1672, Turks captured it almost without a fight. Later, little was done to save the Castle from decay, and in the 1870s it was demolished, with only a segment of its southern wall being preserved till today.

The Lower Castle, famous for its architectural beauty, was rebuilt after 1565 to replace the earlier wooden one. It was located on the site of today's National Museum and Maria Zankovetska Theatre. Here, in 1537, King Sigismund-I-the-Old signed the Order which put an end to the absolute monarchy of Poland. The Swedish King Karl XII stayed in the Lower Castle in 1704, after he captured the city. Later, the Castle also served as a prison for Polish nobility.

The devastating fire of 1527 ruined Lviv to the ground, leaving only two structures: the Town Hall and one other building; the survival of the latter was attributed to the protection of the Holy Virgin. The fire destroyed many stone structures and melted church bells and artillery guns. Although the ban imposed on wooden construction in 1540 was not too strictly observed, the buildings which appeared later were mostly built of stone. The most common construction style was a typical European kind of three-storey buildings with three windows on each floor. The walls were covered with carpets, which later gave way to plaster. Furniture, mostly made of oak, was solid, intricately carved and lavishly decorated. Oriental carpets often covered floors; kitchenware of silver and tin (which used to be almost as expensive as silver) was used; glassware, often of coloured glass; clocks in bronze or gilded wood — these were to show the wealth of a house-owner. Paintings and books were not scarce in the town. Preference was given to Italian and Dutch painting; libraries with dozens or hundreds of volumes were quite common. The largest known library, with 1,200 books, belonged to John Alembek, the author of the first description of Lviv (1618), who died in 1636.

From the 14th to the 18th centuries, 51 epidemies were recorded in Lviv. The largest toll was taken by the so called Black Years of 1620-1623, when two-thirds of the local population died.

Food was plain as elsewhere in those days; the typical menu consisted of cereals and vegetables. Fish was very popular. Trade in salted fish was one of the main sources of income for the Lviv treasury, with quality control being stringent. But very few of the foods were ever quality controlled. Oriental spices, extremely expensive in Europe (for example, black pepper cost twice as much as gold in Western Europe), were cheap and accessible in Lviv, which was one of the few cities enjoying the right to the exclusive storage of oriental goods, which meant that such goods were to be sold to the local people for prices set by Lviv. In case of non-compliance, the whole caravan was confiscated.

Local town people loved good drinks. Among the popular drinks in Lviv was gorilka. Wine was very common. In addition to wine which came from Greece, Spain, Italy and Hungary, the city manufactured its own wines: vineyards were planted on the site of today's Lysenko Street and Klepariv. But the favourite drink was beer, which in those days was exported even to Bavaria. It took six weeks to transport Lviv beer there, and it did not spoil. Hardly any modern drink would stand such a test. Disturbances were quelled in the city by local guards called "tsipaky". The name came from their main weapon, a military frail, in Ukrainian called "tsip". There were 24 of them. Although their formal task was to patrol the city gates at night, in fact, they acted as a city police force.

Court decisions were implemented by an executioner whose nickname, the Man Mot Too Kind, became his formal title. This work was well paid, however, very few volunteered to take that position, as the holder, together with his family, was doomed to general hatred and contempt.

Little is known about what Lviv cemeteries of 14th-18th centuries looked like. There were seven cemeteries located near the churches. The Catholics were buried next to the Catholic cathedrals; the cemeteries of the Assumption Church and of the Armenian Cathedral served as a burial ground for the Orthodox and for the Armenians, respectively. The Jewish cemetery, dating from the 14th century and destroyed by the Nazi in the beginning of the 1940s, occupied the site of the present Krakiwsky Market. The rich were buried in church basements; the poor — near the church. The tombstones, made of bronze, marble or alabaster, usually presented a sleeping man or woman. Such tombstones can be seen in the Roman Catholic Cathedral, the Jesuit and the Dominican Churches. The coffin carried a tomb portrait, which after the funeral was moved to the church. The collections of Lviv History Museum and of Lviv Picture Gallery contain about 10 such portraits by unknown masters, which still impress the viewer with their vivid colours and deep psychological insight. Cemeteries, located on 36 hectares of the enclosed space, presented a danger to the health of people, and in 1783, on the order of Joseph II, they were dismantled and moved outside the city's boundaries: only one — Lychakivsky cemetery — has been preserved until the present day.