Location: Muzeynaya Square 1
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The church and monastery of the Dominicans is a historical
baroque complex of the church and monastery of the Dominican
order of the 18th century. in the city of Lviv, an
architectural monument of national importance.
The
Greek Catholic Church of the Holy Eucharist is located in
the church, which was handed over to the UGCC in the 1990s.
As of the 2010s, a part of the building of the monastery
cells is occupied by the Dzyga art association (in
particular, the gallery of the same name, as well as the art
cafe "Kvartira 35" and the cafe "Under the clepsydra"), and
in the other part of the building of the monastery cells and
in bell tower is the Lviv Museum of the History of Religion
(former Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism).
Old Russian period
According to ancient chronicles,
the palace of Prince Leo I stood here. However, it remains unclear
whether the church of Saints Peter and Paul was built at this time or
later - during the reign of Yuri I. According to Igor Mytsk, "it can be
stated that ... church of St. Peter and Paul was a cathedral, probably
named Ratensky in honor of its heavenly patron."
Gothic temple
After the ancient Russian church was handed over to the Catholics, a new
large nave was added to it, so that the old room of princely times began
to serve as the altar part (presbyterium). Formed in this way, the new
Gothic church became Dominican and received the name of the Body of God
in 1407, while the altar part preserved the dedication of St. Peter and
Paul. The funds for the construction were mainly provided by the burgher
Mykola Benko and his wife Anna from Zhabokruk. According to other data,
it was built before the middle of the 14th century. by the builder
Mykola Chekh, possibly using the walls, foundations of the princely
palace and the chapel. His scheme at the end of the 16th century.
painted by Dominican traveler Martin Gruneweg.
In 1511, the
church was destroyed by fire. The reconstruction work was supported by
Archbishop Bernard Vilchek. In 1527, the church burned again during the
Great Fire, which destroyed the entire Gothic Lviv. Despite these
troubles, the monastery of the Body of God quickly recovered after the
destruction, its authority and wealth grew. At the end of the 16th
century, the monastery owned 5 villages in the vicinity of Lviv. In
three of these villages, monks from the monastery also performed
pastoral service in the parishes.
In 1556, master Griger built a
library building, and at the end of the century, a new dormitory. At the
turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, Prior Jan Blaszczyk built other
buildings in the style of Mannerism. Alabaster tombstones attributed to
Hermann van Gutte remain after this era. They represent i.a. Vaclav
Didushytskyi (died in 1584), Jan Svoshovskyi (d. 1604), Stanislav Wlodek
(d. 1615) and made in the style of Dutch Mannerism.
In 1604, Jan
Svoshovsky, together with his first wife, Malgozhata de Konary
(Konarska), "recorded" the village of Birky for the altar of the Lviv
Dominican church. He also founded the chapel of the Mother of God, which
was later dismantled together with the building of the Gothic church.
At the beginning of the 17th century, more than a hundred monks
lived in the monastery. Four brotherhoods operated at the monastery -
Names of Jesus, Rosary, St. Anna and the Third Act. In 1621, King
Sigismund III Vasa stopped at the Dominicans on his way to the Khotyn
War.
The Gothic church began to collapse in the first half of the
18th century. In 1742, the vault cracked and the abbot of the monastery
decided to demolish the building and build a new one. In 1745 or 1748,
the cathedral was dismantled together with the baroque chapel of Jan
Svoshovsky.
Tomb
The following were buried, in particular:
Hrytsko Kerdeyovych with his wife Klara, Alexander Senyavskyi, marshal
Prokop Senyavskyi, Lviv castellan Stanislav Vlodek, and both of his
wives - Elzhbeta from Zamoyski, Jadwiga from Olesnicki, Yakub Pototski
(Dominik monk; 1608-1639, Dominican; buried in underground crypts) Anna
Eufrozyna Senyavska of Khodkevichi Yoanna Pototska — mother of Mykola
Vasyl Pototskiy, Franciszek Ustrytskii, Elizaveta Rozhnatowska of the
coat of arms of Sas — second wife of Krzysztof Strzemeski, Pavel Tarlo —
judge of the Lviv Zemstvo, military of Strya, Alexander Zborowski, Rafal
(d. 1571), Stanislav (d. 1600) Galky from Romanov, Jan Svoshovskyi
(recorded the village of Birky as fundush), Vaclav (d. 1584), Yuriy (d.
1641) (tombstones were made for him), Rafail Didushytskyi, Mykolai
Herburt.
A. Risinger was one of the first to publish photos of
sarcophagi from the dungeons of the Dominican Church.
A modern
temple
Shortly after the demolition of the Gothic cathedral, in 1749,
the cornerstone of the new building was laid by Józef Potocki, the Grand
Hetman of the Crown and the Cracow castellan. The project of the new
temple building was developed by the engineer and architect Jan de
Witte. Hetman Józef Pototskyi (he was the main funder of the
construction), Kaniv mayor Mykola Vasyl Pototskyi (allocated 236,000
zlotys; his mother was buried here) allocated funds for the
construction. The construction was supervised by Martyn Urbanik, from
1764 by Hristofor Muradovych.
The facade was finished by
Sebastian Fessinger, who in 1764 began work on the manufacture of stone
statues that were to crown it. He also executed a wooden carved
polychrome structure of the organ (lat. moles organarius), which later
burned down.
By 1764, the construction was mostly completed, but
after fires on August 26, 1766 (caused by the carelessness of Matthew
Miller while painting the organ) and 1778, work resumed. In 1865,
according to the project of the architect Yulian Zakharevich, a 4-tier
bell tower was added to the church. In 1895, the lantern on the dome was
rebuilt, in 1905–1914, the interior was restored, the work was carried
out according to the project of architects Alfred Zacharevich and Józef
Sosnowski, Dr. Alexander Cholovsky also participated as a "conservator".
The crypt was also planned to be restored, but this was prevented by the
war. Later, in Soviet times, the temple was restored in 1956-1958.
In 1749, Franciszek the Russian turned to the Pope with a request,
according to which the icon of the Mother of God was solemnly crowned on
July 1, 1751 with the participation of the Lviv Latin Archbishop Mykolai
Vyzhytskyi, the funds were provided, in particular, by the Kiev voivode
Stanislav Pototskyi.
The church was built in the late Baroque style
according to the Western European model. Stone, in plan it depicts an
elongated cross with an oval central part and two bell towers on the
sides. A huge elliptical dome magnifies the church. Massive double
columns support galleries and boxes, decorated with wooden statues of
Lviv sculptors of the second half of the 18th century. Above the
galleries are drum columns supporting the dome. Under the bathhouse of
the church is a quote in Latin from the First Epistle of Timothy: "Soli
Deo honor et gloria" ("Honor and praise to God alone").
Anthony
Osinskyi and Matvii Poleiovskyi made carvings for the church. Sebastian
Fessinger's sculptures have been preserved in the interior of the
church.
Several chapels are adjacent to the main nave of the
church:
St. Anthony (first right) with an icon of the saint by the
Lviv master Harr in 1838;
in the name of Christ from memory the table
of Dr. Tadeusz Zhulinskyi (?—1885, author Tomas Dykas), on the other
side — the poet Maria Bartusyuvna (?—1885) with a bust of
Wisnievetskyi's work and a poem by Lenartovych; has a pseudo-rococo
altarpiece with a carving of "The Heart of Jesus" by Voitovich (1912);
chapel of St. Jaceka with the icon of M. Yablonsky, is a vestibule to
the next one;
the chapel of Potocki (also Our Lady of Jackowiej,
Polish: Panny Matki Jackowiej), built after 1764; according to M.
Orlovich, one of the first buildings with signs of classicism in Lviv,
funds for construction were provided by M. V. Pototskyi;
the building
of the monastery cells, rebuilt in 1556–1621 and restored after the
fires of 1766 and 1778. The building is made of stone, rectangular in
plan, three-story, with two inner courtyards, with a corridor layout
system typical for monastic buildings and arched ceilings;
chapel of
St. Vincentia with the icon of M. Yablonsky;
chapel of St. Dominica
with an old icon in a new pseudo-rococo veil with an Empire tombstone of
Countess Josefa Borkowska (?—1811) by Torvaldsen;
chapel of St.
Tomasz with an icon of M. Yablonsky, a rococo carving of Christ the
Merciful.