The Dominican church and monastery ( uk, Домініканський костел і монастир, ''Dominikanskyi kostel i monastyr'', pl, Kościół i klasztor Dominikanów we Lwowie) in

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

is located in the city's Old Town, east of the market square. It was originally built as the Roman Catholic church of Corpus Christi, and today serves as the Greek Catholic church of the Holy Eucharist.

History

The

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of ...

first arrived in Lviv during the 13th century and the first wooden church is said to have been built in 1234 within the Low Castle, founded by the wife of Leo I of Halych. That church burned down during a war in 1340. A new Gothic church, resembling the parish church in Kazimierz Dolny, was built on the present site in 1378 and later rebuilt after a fire in 1407 along with the monastery buildings. During the 16th century the complex was ravaged by several fires, nevertheless it continued to gradually rise in prosperity. In the 18th century the church's ceiling started cracking and it was decided in 1745 that the church had to be taken apart and replaced with a new one. In 1749 Józef Potocki laid the cornerstone for the present day Baroque church, commonly attributed to Jan de Witte. Between 1756 and 1761 Mikołaj Bazyli Potocki donated 236,000 złoty to the church and the Dominican monastery in Lviv, where his mother was buried. These donations funded the Potocki chapel in the church. The church was consecrated in 1764 by the Latin archbishop of Lviv Wacław Hieronim Sierakowski. The Dominicans managed to survive the reign of the Austrian emperor

Joseph II Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 29, 1780 un ...

, who closed many other monasteries. In 1865 a neo-baroque bell tower was added to the complex. In the years 1885–1914 a controversial renovation of the facade and interior was carried out. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the complex was occupied by the Soviets, used as a warehouse, and in the 1970s changed into a ''museum of religion and atheism''. With the collapse of the Soviet Union the church was given to the

Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church , native_name_lang = uk , caption_background = , image = StGeorgeCathedral Lviv.JPG , imagewidth = , type = Particular church (sui iuris) , alt = , caption = St. George's ...

and now serves as a parish church. The monastery, however, has not yet been returned and still serves as a museum (renamed ''The Lviv Museum of History of Religion''). The church resembles the Karlskirche. It is built on the plan of the

Greek Cross The Christian cross, with or without a figure of Christ included, is the main religious symbol of Christianity. A cross with a figure of Christ affixed to it is termed a ''crucifix'' and the figure is often referred to as the ''corpus'' (La ...

inscribed in an ellipsoid and topped with a monumental dome. Before 1946, the church contained a miraculous icon of the

Blessed Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

, crowned by Pope

Benedict XIV Pope Benedict XIV ( la, Benedictus XIV; it, Benedetto XIV; 31 March 1675 – 3 May 1758), born Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 17 August 1740 to his death in May 1758. Pope ...

in 1751, which can be found today in the Dominican in Gdańsk, and an alabaster figure brought by St. Hyacinth from Mongol-sacked Kiev to

Halych Halych ( uk, Га́лич ; ro, Halici; pl, Halicz; russian: Га́лич, Galich; german: Halytsch, ''Halitsch'' or ''Galitsch''; yi, העליטש) is a historic city on the Dniester River in western Ukraine. The city gave its name to the P ...

and later to Lviv, which now resides in Church of St. Giles in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

. In 2019, the Dominican Church was the location for the Gregorian's music video for their song ''

Viva la Vida "Viva la Vida" (, ; ) is a song by British rock band Coldplay. It was written by all members of the band for their fourth album, ''Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends'' (2008). The lyrics to the song contain historical and Christian refe ...

.Gregorian "Viva La Vida" (Official Music Video) – Album out November 22nd (Youtube).
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External links

References

{{coord, 49, 50, 34, N, 24, 2, 3, E, type:landmark_region:UA-46_scale:4000, display=title Churches in Lviv

Church buildings with domes