Based on the principles of the blazoning it features a lion passant Or, beneath a castle gate Or, in an azure field.

The first such depictions occurred on 13th-century seals of dukes Andrew and Leo of Volhynia, rulers of medieval Ruthenian duchy of Halych-Volynia.

In 1586 bishop Jan Dymitr Solikowski, royal diplomat and a bishop of Lwów, as the city was then called, was accepted on an audience by the Pope Sixtus V. In the effect, the city was granted with a privilege of adding the papal coat of arms to its own.

It featured a lion rampant Or, below a three-towered city gate proper, with a hammer and sickle in the centre Or, on azure.

After Ukraine declared independence, on 5 July 1990 the city council passed a new coat of arms, modelled after the initial emblem from the times of Ruthenia.