Lviv marked the onset of winter in early December with news that the city had finally been confirmed as a host city for Euro 2012. Officials at European football’s governing body UEFA had previously threatened to deny Lviv, Donetsk and Kharkiv the right to host games due to the slow pace of their respective preparations

The elegant building located at 27 Svobody Avenue in Lviv has always been at the centre of trend-setting in the capital of West Ukraine. Originally known as ‘Kun’s Hotel’ and later as the ‘Belle View’, ‘Explanada’ and ‘Elit’ hotels respectively, at the turn of the twentieth century the building housed a popular concert hall which offered cabaret from magicians as well as some of Ukraine’s first ever cinema screenings.

Lvivites were treated to a rare glimpse of Chinese art this month with the arrival of a contemporary art exhibition featuring works inspired by and used in the productions of the Beijing Opera.

Halloween has proved a popular holiday in post-independence Ukraine, but this year’s festivities were curtailed by a flu epidemic centred in West Ukraine which forced events to be cancelled across the region. Lviv’s party people were not be sidetracked by a mere global pandemic, however, and rescheduled this year’s Halloween party for late November.