Pl. Muzeina, 3 – church of the Blessed Eucharist (former Dominican convent church) ID: 188

The former Dominican Roman Catholic Church is the biggest Baroque church in Lviv. This massive monument of the Christian architecture has become the main component of the architectural complex dating to the fifteenth-nineteenth centuries including also the buildings of the monastery cells and the bell tower. The church was built from stone and brick over the course of 1749-1764 (the architects J. de Vitte, M. Urbanik and K. Muradowicz) on the site of a Gothic church of the fifteenth century, on the plot of land bordering the medieval Lviv on the west. In 1792-1798 the church was reconstructed (by the architect K. Fesinger). In 1905-1914 the interior restoration was completed. A square and a garden have been set up in front of the church. Under Socialism, the building housed the Museum of Atheism, later Museum of the History of Religion.

Related buildings and spaces

Pl. Muzeina, 1 – former Dominican Monastery

(presently the building of the Lviv Museum of the History of Religion, 1 Stavropihiyska Street). The monastery building is a component of the architectural ensemble including also the church’s building nextdoor and the bell tower. The monastery constructions border on the northern nave of the church. The long chronicle of the monastery’s erection covers several periods: the fifteenth century, the years of 1556-1621 (reconstruction by the architect M. Czech) and the end of the eighteenth century (renovation after fire). Correspondingly, the object is rich in features of the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque periods.

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Pl. Muzeina, 3 – the former Dominican convent bell tower

The bell tower is a component of the architectural ensemble of the Dominican Monastery (dating to the fifteenth-nineteenth centuries), the base of which is formed by the late Baroque church and the cell block. The bell tower was erected in 1865 (by the architect J. Braunzeiss) and built onto the church from the north.

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Pl. Muzeina, 1 – former Dominican Monastery
Pl. Muzeina, 3 – the former Dominican convent bell tower

Architecture

The church’s plan is of an elongated cross shape with the central section in the form of an ellipse with a massive cupola over it and a rectangular altar section. The chapels are surrounding the central ellipsoid.

Church façade with an interrupted pediment is adorned with two columns on socle flanking the central entrance. The cupola drum is also decorated with columns. The windows are rectangular, in molding. The pediment is decorated with statues of saints (by the sculptor S. Fesinger).

The interior encompasses wooden sculptures set up under the cupola (the second half of the eighteenth century), altar plastics by M. Polejowski (1777) and stone and alabaster tomb stones of the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries from the old church. Special attention should be paid to the marble epitaph made by B. Torvaldsen (dating to 1816), the monument to A. Grotger (by the sculptor W. Gadomski, dating to 1880) and memorial plastics by A. Schimser (the first third of the nineteenth century).

The Lviv’s Dominican Church of the Lord’s Body is one of the best late Baroque architectural monuments in Europe.

People

Leonard Marconi – Leonard Marconi was a sculptor and building decorator, professor at the Higher Technical School in Lviv. /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable

Wincenty Pol – This popular Polish poet of the Romantic era was also one of the first geographers in the world and a versatile scholar. Wincenty Pol travelled a lot and was familiar with the nature and antiquities of Galicia. In 1866-1867, he collaborated with conservator Mieczysław Potocki as a correspondent of the Central Commission for the Protection of Monuments. During this time, he became a vocal critic of the institution.

Ivan Stupnytskyi – Fr. Ivan Stupnytskyi is an example of an intellectual for whom, despite his religious rank, studies in numismatics and archeology did not have a clearly religious basis, being rather a pleasure at leisure, which his education and high social position allowed him. Chancellor of the Greek Catholic Church, bishop of Przemyśl and deputy marshal of the Galician Diet, he also was a correspondent of the Viennese Central Commission for the Protection of Monuments in 1866-1890.

Józef Sermak – Józef Sermak (appr. 1834-1874) was born in Lviv and studied law at the Francis I University. He worked as a lawyer in Przemyśl and, from 1867, in Lviv, where he also became a member of the City Council and many societies. In 1865-1874, he collaborated with conservator Mieczysław Potocki as a correspondent of the Central Commission for the Protection of Monuments.

Mieczysław Potocki

Sources

The entry was partly developed within the project "Galiciana", 2001-2002

Цитування

Ihor Zhuk. "Pl. Muzeina, 3 – church of the Blessed Eucharist (former Dominican convent church)". Lviv Interactive (Center for Urban History 2013). URL: https://lia.lvivcenter.org/en/objects/dominican-church/

Author(s): Ihor Zhuk