 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.