Lviv is awash with bars. There is nothing unusual in the majority, but down an otherwise unremarkable street leading away from the Rynok a dark secret awaits. A bronze statue marks the entrance, which is a tribute to a Lviv inhabitant of yesteryear - Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. The name admittedly doesn't trip off the tongue. Herr Masoch would lend his name to the subject of sexual pleasure from pain and subjugation i.e. masochism. Old Leopold was an Austrian nobleman, who resided in these parts in the mid 1800s. A writer and a journalist, he gained some renown for his romantic stories. His best known work, Venus in Furs from 1870, explores the very un-Victorian subject of his understanding of sexual relationships. It is probably fair to say, they were unconventional for the time. This is a
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