Sunday, May 30, 2010
City Hall (and some more history)
In 1704, Swedish King Karl XII conquered Lviv and plundered the City treasury. As legend goes during the assault one of the city defenders hiding on the Korniakta tower shoot an arrow and knocked the King's hat off his head. It was either this incident or a money shortage that made the King order his soldiers to ravage the town. On September 19, 1772, Austrian troops marched into Lviv. The Prussian King Fredrick II made an observation that when the Austrian ruler, Maria Teresa was signing the decree of the division of Poland she was crying. Lviv was made the capitol of the Royal territory of Halychyna and Volodymerii and in the 19th century a palace for the Governor was built. In 1773, the first Lviv newspaper, the “Gazette de Leopoli” was published on Lychakivska Street and the first edition of the famous “Gazeta Lwowska” was presented to the world in 1811. Austrian authorities were building new roads, banks, and enterprises. The original City Hall made of wood burnned down in 1527. The second City hall collapsed in 1826 killing several people including Lviv's last bugler. This governor of the City Hall tower was popular among the city dwellers. He spent days and nights on the tower keeping watch for fires and other things. The present day city hall has 156 rooms and 9 halls, yet the officials of Lviv find the building too small and keep rebuilding the upper floor. 4 Greek gods surround city hall on each corner: Artemis, Adonis, Diana and Neptune.
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