Austrian Lviv Tour: Habsburg-Era Architecture & Palaces

19th century Lviv was the capital of the big imperial province and one of the biggest cities in Austria: this is where the province parliament worked with its official languages being Polish and Ukrainian, having a sizeable Jewish and Armenian minority and being a settlement for the university and many famous noble families with their glorious palaces. Austro-Hungarian period in Lviv (which is nearly 150 years) is often humorously called ‘Granny Austria times’. Lovely name to refer to a country, right? The Habsburg’s federal system granted many freedoms to the Ukrainians (called ‘Ruthenians’ at the time); first coffee houses and buildings with balconies appeared in Lviv during that period, city walls were dismantled and the city extended greatly. These and many more changes were brought by the Austrians. It was a period of cultural and economic growth and a bloom of architecture. La petit Paris or a brother to Krakow, that might remind you a bit of Prague, Vienna or Budapest – this is our noble Lviv.