Lwów, Lviv, Lvov and Lemberg

Now he was finally, physically, going to be in the city that he had written, read and thought about for so long, this city that was neither founded as a Polish city nor in the boundaries of the present -day Polish state yet played a major part in Poland's national life from 1340 right through to modern times. From 1340 to 1773 and from 1920 to 1939-it was nearly all the time under Polish national government. This, he now reflected, comprised the majority of the time from the founding of the city about the year 1250 to the Twenty-first century present. From what he had read the city had also had a crucial position in the culture and history of the Ukraine, where the city was known as Lviv. Just how this all panned out in practice he'd have to wait and see. He had had his interest in Eastern Europe for many years, visiting several countries in the region. So why had he not attempted this particular peregrination before?