Lviv also hosts the administration of Lviv urban hromada. From , it was the regional capital of the Ruthenian Voivodeship in the Kingdom of Poland. In , for a short time, it was the capital of the West Ukrainian People's Republic.
The once-large Jewish community of the city was murdered in large numbers by the Nazis and by Galician Nazi collaborationists during the Holocaust. For decades there was no working synagogue in Lviv after the final one was closed by the Soviets. The greater part of the once-predominant Polish population was sent to Poland during a population exchange between Poland and Soviet Ukraine in — The historical heart of the city, with its cobblestone streets and architectural assortment of Renaissance , Baroque , Neo-classicism and Art Nouveau , survived Soviet and German occupations during World War II largely unscathed.
Due to the city's Mediterranean aura, many Soviet movies set in places like Venice or Rome were actually shot in Lviv. The city has many industries and institutions of higher education , such as Lviv University and Lviv Polytechnic. Lviv is also the home of many cultural institutions, including a philharmonic orchestra and the Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet. The coat of arms , the banner of the Lviv City Council and the logo, are the officially approved symbols of Lviv. The names or images of architectural and historical monuments are also considered symbols of the city by the Statute of Lviv.
Lviv's modern coat of arms is based on the coat of arms from the city seal in the middle of the 14th century—a stone gate with three towers, and in the opening of the gate walks a golden lion.
Lviv's large coat of arms is a shield, with the coat of arms of the city, crowned with a silver crown with three edges, held by a lion and an ancient warrior. Lviv's flag is a blue square banner with an image of the city emblem and with yellow and blue triangles at the edges. Lviv's logo is an image of five colorful towers in Lviv and the slogan "Lviv — open to the world" under them. Lviv is on the edge of the Roztochia Upland , about 70 kilometres 43 miles east of the Polish border and km 99 mi north of the eastern Carpathian Mountains.
