The article investigates the historical significance of Lviv, a longstanding intellectual center in Eastern Europe, particularly as the former capital of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Despite its academic prominence, especially in anatomical sciences, there is a notable gap in international research concerning the University of Lviv and figures like Henryk Karol Klemens Kadyi (1851–1912), a key anatomist and university rector (1898–1899). The study provides an overview of Lviv University’s history and explores Kadyi’s academic impact, emphasizing his crucial role in re-establishing the Medical Faculty in 1894. Kadyi’s contributions to anatomical sciences and his role in shaping Lviv’s medical education are highlighted. Despite his significance, Kadyi remains understudied in international historical research, prompting the authors to initiate a collaborative international project to delve into various aspects of his professional life and his influence on the medical field in the Habsburg Monarchy between the late 19th and early 20th century.

Lviv as the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria (which after the First Partition of Poland fell under Habsburg government in 1772) and its academic life were deeply connected with academic, legal, and political dynamics within the Habsburg Monarchy. For example, this can be shown by the introduction of a dissection course. It was first implemented in Vienna in 1786/87, and somewhat later in more peripheral academic institutions like Lviv, in 1810, after it had proofed itself in the capital. This showcases that Vienna held a special position among all („Austrian“) Habsburg universities as a testing ground for innovations, which later on could be implemented throughout the entire Habsburg Monarchy. The same mechanism has already been researched concerning other “smaller” Habsburg universities, for example in modern day Croatia

Henryk Kadyi, professor of anatomy in the Lviv university, was regarded as one of most eminent researchers in preparatory techniques. He studied medicine in Krakow and Vienna, then working in the Department of Anatomy in Jagiellonian University in Krakow under Professor Ludwik Karol Teichmann. 
Teichmann is recognized as master of preparatory techniques, which enabled him to achieve several important discoveries, especially in the field of lymphatic system anatomical structure. Kadyi was co-working with Teichmann for several years having opportunity to learn and practice the art of preparation. Still in Krakow he began his own scientific project aiming to make full description of the vascular system of the spinal cord. In agreement with Teichmann, exploring several materials and techniques, Kadyi was in close scientific collaboration with Professor Albert Adamkiewicz, whose name is to this day associated with so-called Adamkiewicz artery (arteria radicularis magna).