Bernardine Church, Lviv

The Bernardine church and monastery in Lviv, Ukraine, is located in the city's Old Town, south of the market square. It was designed by Paolo Dominici. The monastery along with the church of St. Andrew now belong to the Order of St. Basil the Great of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

The Franciscan Observantists, known in the region as Bernardines after their monastery in Kraków in order to distinguish them from Franciscan Conventuals, were invited to Lviv by Andrzej Odrowąż, who founded the first monastery in 1460 outside of the city walls. The monastery was burned down in 1498, and then in 1509 by the Moldovan hospodar Bogdan III the One-Eyed. The church and monastery were rebuilt using the half-timbered (Prussian wall) technique. In 1521, the remains of John of Dukla were transferred from the crypt to a sarcophagus by the wall of the presbytery. In 1587, the monastic buildings were probably damaged during the raid on Lviv by Mikołaj Jazłowiecki.

In 1600, the Bernardine Order appealed to King Sigismund III Vasa for permission to rebuild the church and monastery and to incorporate them into the city fortifications. On 16 March 1603, a royal privilege was issued granting consent for the reconstruction. The reconstruction was supervised by Fr. Bernard Avelides, while the chief architect was Paolo Romano. The new church was built in the mannerist style. In 1608, a red marble tomb for the relics of John of Dukla was installed in the church; it was made by Wojciech Kapinos at the foundation of Mikołaj Daniłowicz. The first part of the church was completed in 1609, but it did not gain approval, and the work was continued by the architect Ambrosius Nutclauss. The construction was supported by donations from soldiers returning from the Muscovite War. The presbytery was vaulted in 1613. The old church was demolished in 1614. The church was consecrated in 1620, and the high altar was erected in 1622. After the construction of the church, the monastic buildings were erected and, in the 1630s, were connected to the city walls. In 1648, the city council of Lviv funded a silver votive plaque in the church in thanksgiving for the city’s salvation from the Khmelnytsky invasion. In the same spirit, a thanksgiving corona was placed at the tomb of John of Dukla for the deliverance of the city.

Indeterminate works on the church were carried out in 1714–15. In 1731, Jakub Schyling covered the church roof with tiles. In 1733–34, a bell tower was erected using funds from the testamentary bequest of Adam Mikołaj Sieniawski, the Castellan of Kraków. The beatification of John of Dukla on 21 January 1733 initiated Baroque changes in the church. In 1736, a column in front of the church was erected on which a statue of John of Dukla was placed. Tomasz Hutter and Konrad Kotschenreiter crafted a new main altar, as well as the altars of the Virgin Mary and St. Anthony. The tabernacle of the main altar was made by the carpenter Kazimierz Mieskiewicz, the woodcarver Michał Szczupakiewicz, and Marcin Groblicz. The frescoes were executed by Benedykt Mazurkiewicz. At the same time, a number of smaller altars were also installed, and the floor was laid with black marble brought from Czerna near Kraków. In 1740, the solemn translation of the remains of John of Dukla took place, moving them from the altar of St. Anne, where they had been placed during the refurbishment, to the retable in the presbytery. Work on the church’s decoration continued until 1768. New frescoes were created in the sacristy and treasury by Franciszek Eckstein, and in the vestibule by Stanisław Stroiński. Between 1748 and 1755, a brick well of St. John of Dukla was constructed.

Church data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).