Household Cohabitation Patterns in Multiethnic Seventeenth-Century Lviv

Abstract

Abstract Lviv, a mid-sized city in the eastern borderlands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, numbered approximately 10,000 inhabitants in the second half of the seventeenth century. Its wealth, strategic location, and role as a trade center with the East contributed to significant ethno-religious diversity, with influential communities of Ruthenians (Ukrainians), Armenians, and Jews, alongside the Catholic majority. Detailed analysis of the 1662 Lviv poll tax register and other sources reveals the social composition and size of individual households, as well as their location in the city, houses’ construction material, and plot sizes. The results reveal diverse domestic arrangements influenced not only by individual socio-economic factors but also by the structural and cultural characteristics of the urban space.