Lemberg

Lemberg (formerly Löwenburg; Polish name 'Lwów'), the capital of the Austrian kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, is situated on a small tributary of the Bug, in a narrow basin among hills, 212 miles E. of Cracow. It is defended by a citadel, around which the modern town has grown up. Pop. (1869) 87,109; (1890) 128,419, of whom about 40,000 are Jews, whilst nearly 100,000 speak Polish. Lemberg is the seat of a Roman Catholic, a Greek United, and an Armenian archbishop, and has nearly thirty churches and several monasteries; in the 17th century and earlier it was called the 'town of the monks.' Several of the churches are fine buildings, as the Dominican, which contains a greatly venerated image of the Virgin; the Greek cathedral, built in the Italian style in 1740-79; the Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral (1350-1460); and the Armenian cathedral, dating from the 14th century. The university, founded in 1784 and reorganised in 1817, has more than 900 students. Its library contains 86,000 volumes and 470 MSS. Here also is the seat of the national institute founded (1817) by Ossolinski, with a library of 81,000 volumes and 3000 MSS., chiefly of Polish literature, and large collections of medals, coins, antiquities, paintings, engravings, &c. There is a considerable trade in flax, hemp, cloth, leather, and agricultural products. The manufactures embrace machinery, earthenware, oil, beer, &c. Founded in 1259, Lemberg was an important city of Poland from 1340. It has been several times besieged, on the last occasion in 1848. It fell to Austria at the first partition of Poland.