Pl. Staryi Rynok – former St. John the Baptist church ID: 164

Former St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church (currently houses the Museum of Historic Artifacts of Lviv, a branch of the Lviv Art Gallery) is an architectural monument that was built in the earliest period of Lviv's history. The church was built at the foot of Castle Mountain, on its western slope. The main dates of construction and later reconstruction are the end of the thirteenth century, the middle of the fourteenth century, the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries, 1836 (restoration), 1887 (reconstruction by the architect Julian Zachariewicz), and 1989 (restoration with partial reconstruction). 

Architecture

The church has one nave which is rectangular in its foundation, built from stone (the foundations and old walls) and brick (reconstruction of 1887), and has a presbytery. The ceiling is high and descending. The side walls of the main building and the chapel are decorated with red brick arching belts. The corners are emphasized by buttresses. On the western façade one can see a blind rose window decorated with majolica tiles (the end of the nineteenth century). The  church's territory is surrounded by a low wall.
   
The church is an example of the reconstruction of a late medieval religious building with architectural elements added to it in different periods. In the interior, one can see the revealed foundation of the old building of the thirteenth century. The vault has been redone.

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