The Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet or Lviv Opera is an opera house located in Lviv, Ukraine's largest western city and one of its historic cultural centers. Originally built on former marshland of the submerged Poltva River, the Lviv Opera now sits at the end of Freedom Avenue , the tree-lined centerpiece of Lviv's historic Old City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in the city's Halych district. According to the inscription in the theater lobby, the building was constructed between 1897 and 1900, and has remained standing throughout several changes in history. Originally built when Lviv was the capital of the autonomous province of Galicia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Lviv Opera first stood at the end of Archduke Karl Ludwig Avenue, was later known as the Grand Theatre of the Second Polish Republic, and during the time of Soviet rule, entering patrons would pass by a towering statue of Vladimir Lenin. For four decades, the theater was known as the Ivan Franko Lviv State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet, having been renamed in 1956 after the city's famous poet and political activist on the centenary of his birth. In 2000, the Lviv Opera celebrated its own centennial with another renaming, this time after one of the city's native daughters, Solomiya Krushelnytska, a renowned soprano of the early 20th century.
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