He was one of the leading figures in Lviv’s interwar architecture. And although not all his designs were to the public’s taste, he left a lasting mark on the built environment of Lviv and many other towns, now in Ukraine. Bronisław Wiktor is certainly an artist whose achievements are well worth remembering.

Bronisław Wiktor ( 1886–1961) was a Polish architect, painter and sculptor who lived in Lviv for a time. He was born in Markowce. He graduated from, amongst others , the Faculty of Architecture at Lviv Polytechnic, as well as a private art school run by Stanisław Batowski-Kaczor.

Bronisław Wiktor was employed by numerous architectural practices run by leading specialists. He therefore worked, amongst others, under the guidance of Jan Lewiński and Julian Zachariewicz . He also won awards in numerous industry competitions. Together with his team, he won, amongst other things, first prize for the design of the Eastern Fair Pavilions in Lviv .

Bronisław Wiktor’s building designs were also realised in many towns and villages which are now situated within Ukraine. In his work, the architect combined motifs drawn from local architecture with the Art Deco style , as can be seen in the churches in Porchowa and Wołków. In many cases, he was also inspired by late modernism . Did he draw on the Rococo and Baroque styles? Absolutely – this can be seen, for example, in the Neo-Baroque town hall in Żółkiew. In the later period of his career, he also took an interest in Constructivism.

Wiktor not only designed new buildings, but also restored and rebuilt old ones . This applies in particular to religious buildings. For example, he gave the tower of St Anne’s Church in Lviv a more contemporary form. However, it was his reconstruction of the palace of the Archbishops of Lviv in Obroszyn that caused the most controversy – the architect decided to introduce new decorative elements into the design, and the façades took on a more modernist appearance as a result.