Culture in Lviv

Lvivian luminaries past and present include the great poet Ivan Franko as well as the world's finest science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem. Polish, Ukrainian, Jewish, Armenian, German, Italian and even Scottish names all came to prominence in Lviv's cosmopolitan history.

On a rather more raunchy note, Lviv can lay claim to having brought one Leopold von Sacher-Masoch (he of 'Venus in Furs' fame) into this potty world of ours. The wag who inspired the word 'masochism' grew up in Lviv, where his father was the chief of the Habsburg Police - plenty for Freudian analysts there then...

Lviv may have 'been in the wars' both literally and proverbially, but the sense of the city as a cultural mecca has not been lost. Exuberant churches, a sublime opera house and richly adorned museums and galleries will raise the eyebrows of anyone who thought they already knew Europe back to front. Not everything will be in working order, as you'd expect after fifty years in the Soviet strait-jacket, but life would be pretty dull if every European city was a Starbucks carbon-copy of the next. Life in Lviv is full of bonkers surprises but that's half the joy of the place...

Besides the all year round attractions, there are also a growing number of festivals to lure culture vultures to town. The wide-ranging Virtuosi Music Festival gets underway in the Spring, whilst the Zoloty Lev (Golden Lion) Theatre Festival dominates the Autumn season. The latter is followed by the Solomia Kryshelnytska Festival of Opera Art in November.

(above) Golden City

(left) Once a highly multicultural metroplis, Lviv still boasts three cathedrals
(below) Contemporary art thrives ar the Dzyga Gallery