Ancient Lvov – Part 2

The town gained strength and developed, becoming an important commercial center. Lvov stood on crossroads between Kiev and Western Europe, the Black Sea and the Baltics attracting caravans from the Genoese colonies situated at the mouth of the Danube and the Dniester, on the way to Krakow, Wroclaw and Gdansk further on.
Young Lvov led a tense and turbulent life. Numerous merchants and artisans who sought refuge from the Tartar invaders settled in Lvov. Its flourishing trade and crafts accounted for its diverse population which at that time included Armenians, Poles, Germans, Hungarians, Jews, Greeks, Moldavians, Italians and even Saracens (”easterners”)- a veritable Babylon indeed! These were followed by Catholic missionaries from the west who spared no effort to turn Lvov into an outpost of the Vatican. The Polish quarter emerged in the southern part of the town, the Armenian residential district in the north. The Tartars settled still farther to the north and the Jewish quarter spread out along the Poltava. The bulk of the urban population was made up of local Ruthenians, as they called themselves. It is characteristic that in the 13th-14th centuries Lvov had two Catholic churches, three Armenian churches and nearly a dozen Orthodox churches. The influx of foreigners testified to the town’s intense economic and cultural activities.