Localness, Identity, and the Historic City. New Elites in the Autonomous Galician Lviv

Abstract

This article explores the urban elites of Lviv during its autonomous era under Habsburg rule. The elites included not only state and municipal officials but also ‘self-proclaimed’ groups of local patriots, whose main point of reference was their city and maintaining its respectability. The issue of the preservation of secular monuments in the city (mainly the Old Town) is dealt with, as well as the history of selected grassroots associations, like the Society of the Friends of Old Lviv and the Society for the Embellishment of the City of Lviv and Its Surroundings. The author argues that by investigating the institutions which took care of the physical space of the city and its buildings, it is possible to delve into the identity of the elites in question. He further argues that it was not only the imperial and national identity that was reflected in the sources, but also a purely local one, which points to the issue of localness as an important category of research.