Sister cities of Lviv

Lviv (Ukrainian: Львів L’viv, IPA: [lʲviu̯]; Polish: Lwów, IPA: [lvuf]; German: Lemberg, Russian: Львов Lvov) is a city in western Ukraine, that was once a major population center of the Halych-Volyn Principality, the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, the Habsburg Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, and later the capital of Lwów Voivodeship during Second Polish Republic.

Formerly capital of the historical region of Galicia, Lviv is now regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine. The historical heart of Lviv with its old buildings and cobblestone roads has survived Soviet and Nazi occupation during World War II largely unscathed. The city has many industries and institutions of higher education such as Lviv University and Lviv Polytechnic. Lviv is also a home to many world-class cultural institutions, including a philharmonic orchestra and the famous Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet. The historic city centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Lviv celebrated its 750th anniversary with a son et lumière in the city centre in September 2006.

The archaeological traces of settlement in place of Lviv city, date as early as the 5th century. The archaeological excavations in 1977 proved the existence of Lendian settlement from between the 8th and 10th century. In 1031 Lviv was reconquered from Mieszko II Lambert King of Poland by prince Yaroslav the Wise. The city of Lviv was rebuilt after invasion of Batu Khan in 1240 by King Daniel of Rurik Dynasty, ruler of the medieval Ruthenian kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, and named after his son, Lev.

The first record belongs to the chronicles mentioning Lviv in 1256. In 1340 Galicia and Lviv were incorporated into the Kingdom of Poland by King Casimir III the Great as inheritance after prince Bolesław Jerzy II of Mazovia. In 1356, Lviv received Magdeburg Rights from King Casimir III the Great. Lviv belonged to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland till 1772. Because of subsequent Partitions of Poland, Lviv had been occupied by the Austrian Empire till 1918. After World War I, from 1918 till the Soviet invasion in 1939, the city of Lviv was the capital of Lwów Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic. On July 22, 1944 Lviv was liberated from Nazi occupation by Polish Armia Krajowa cooperating with advancing Soviet forces after the successful Lwów Uprising.

Since the 15th century the city acted as a major Polish and later also as a Jewish cultural center; with Poles and Jews comprising a demographic majority of the city until the outbreak of World War II, the Holocaust, and the population transfers of Poles that followed. The other ethnicities living within the city, Germans, Ruthenians (Ukrainians), and Armenians, also greatly contributed to Lviv's culture. With the joint German-Soviet Invasion of Poland at the outbreak of World War II, the city of Lwów and Lwów Voivodeship were annexed by the Soviet Union and occupied by the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1939 to 1941. Between July 1941 and July 1944 Lwów was under German occupation and was located in the General Government. In July 1944 it was captured by the Soviet Red Army. According to the agreements of the Yalta Conference, Lwów was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR, most of the Poles living in Lwów were deported into lands newly acquired from Germany under terms of the Potsdam Agreement (officially termed Recovered Territories in Poland), and the city became the main centre of the western part of Soviet Ukraine, inhabited predominantly by Ukrainians with a significant Russian minority.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the city of Lviv remained a part of the now independent Ukraine, for which it currently serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast, and is designated as its own raion (district) within that oblast.

On 12 June 2009 the Ukrainian magazine Focus judged Lviv the best Ukrainian city to live in. Its more Western European flavor lends it the nickname the "Little Paris of Ukraine". The city expected a sharp increase in the number of foreign visitors for the UEFA Euro 2012, and as a result a major new airport terminal was being built. Lviv was one of 8 Polish and Ukrainian cities that co-hosted the group stages of the tournament.