The history of Lviv Polytechnic dates back to the establishment of a Real School in Lviv.
On 4 September 1810, on the initiative of the Galician community, Governor Johann Peter von Goess (1774–1846) appealed to the Superior Education Commission in Vienna to establish a Real School in Lviv. The decree of 11 January 1811 stated that in order to implement this idea, the Galician Provincial Board had to study the curriculum of the Real School in Vienna in order to modify and adapt it to local educational needs and to find suitable premises.
After fulfilling the above requirements, Austrian Emperor Franz I (1768–1835) approved the amendments proposed on 9 September 1812. The Galician provincial administration and the Lviv Metropolitan General Consistory of the Latin Rite approved the adjustments to the plan of the Real School, which were enshrined in a decree of the Crown Council of 16 October 1813. The prototype of the Real School in Lviv was the school established in 1809 at the Benedictine monastery Schottenstift in the centre of Vienna.
After a long search by the regional authorities for suitable premises and the development of an organisational plan, on 7 March 1816 the emperor allowed the establishment of a three-grade Real School in Lviv. At the end of the supreme report of the Higher Education Commission, the emperor’s own resolution reads as follows: «The proposals of the Higher Education Commission have received my approval in all their functions. Milan, 7 March 1816 Franz».
