Mysterious, edgy and architecturally lovely, Lviv boasts that it’s
Ukraine’s least Soviet city. It may have a point. The city’s Unesco World Heritage–listed centre was built like a rich layer-cake of neoclassical architecture upon rococo, baroque, Renaissance and Gothic styles. There’s nary a concrete Soviet apartment block in sight (in the centre, at least), and it has a deep-rooted coffee-house culture that is oh-so-central European.
Yet Lviv does retain a whiff of Sovietness that only broadens its appeal. Weathered babushkas sell pickled vegetables and honey at the city’s Krakivsky Market. There’s still the odd
gastronom (food store), Volga and dodgy neon-lit slot machine parlour scattered about. Opera tickets and tram rides are still priced for the people, at the equivalent of $2 and 10, respectively.
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