The tenement, now known as Korniakta or Królewska, was built on the foundations of two earlier Gothic tenements in 1571-1580 for the wealthy and influential Lviv merchant Konstantin Korniakta (the elder). He was a Greek native of Crete, ennobled in 1571.

It is believed that the building was rebuilt in the spirit of the city palace by Peter Barbon or Paul Roman, who collaborated with him. As a result of inheritance, the property was acquired by his first-born son Konstantin Korniakt (the younger), who sold it to the Order of Discalced Carmelites in 1623. In 1634, King Ladislaus IV, who was ill with smallpox, lay in the house for a month.

In 1640, the house was bought from the monks by the parents of the future king, Jakub and Teofila Sobieski, and after their death, ownership passed to Jan. The king, no longer wishing to reside in the archbishop's palace during his visits, ordered the reconstruction of the building in 1678 so that it could serve as the official residence of the king in Lviv.

The façade from the side of the Market Square has a late Renaissance character with a portal dominating the ground floor, horizontal articulation and an elaborate attic topped with a multi-part sculptural composition. Renaissance forms were also given to the second façade of the palace from the side of Ruska Street (later Blacharska Street, now Fedorova Street). The splendour of the city palazzo is added by the inner galleries built around the middle of the 17th century, and by the slightly later interiors of the first floor furnished for King John III.

Since 1908 the National Museum of Jan III, founded by A. Czołowski and T. Rudkowski, has operated in the Royal Lviv Tenement House (after the building was purchased from Andrzej Lubomirski). Initially it collected paintings and memorabilia from the reign of John III, but over time it was enlarged to include other monuments. The two-storey cloisters surrounding the courtyard on three sides were reconstructed in 1926-1929. Today the walls of the Korniakta - Krolewska building house the Lviv Historical Museum.

After 5 years of preparing archival queries, laboratory research and the development of a conservation work programme and project, conservation work began in 2024. The start of the work was preceded by obtaining permits from the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine and the Kyiv State Inspectorate of Architecture and Urbanism.

Scope of ongoing conservation work

Attic

The visual inspection carried out in May and June 2022 confirmed the emergency state of preservation of the attic - both the masonry and the elements of the sculptural group. The individual figures of knights and dolphins are currently wrapped in plastic nets, which depreciates the monument. The sculptures require comprehensive conservation work including surface cleaning and structural strengthening. Additions to the sculptures should be carried out conservatively, i.e. the reconstructions should be limited to the parts necessary for structural reasons, preserving and exposing the form of the preserved original monumental substance. Due to the artistic value and conservation concerns, it is postulated that all the figures should be dismantled from the façade for the duration of the works and moved to the studio, where the most demanding treatments can be carried out.

Once the sculptures have been dismantled, work should be undertaken on the attic masonry and the brandmurals. Due to severe erosion and detachment, it is necessary to locally remove all plastering and expose the brick weft. With regard to the attic masonry, the complete removal of the plaster should be limited to its back side and the parts located in the sculpture setting area. In the case of fire walls, it will also be necessary to carry out this treatment on their crowns and on both sides of the wall located above the adjacent roof slopes. Once the plasterwork has been removed, it is necessary to assess the state of preservation of the ceramic thread - to determine which parts of the wall need to be re-bricked or reinforced by sewing. During the works, all previous iron (steel) anchors of the sculptures should be removed.

A separate conservation issue is the repositioning and anchoring of the sculptural elements of the attic. The existing system of flat bar bolted clamps and brackets does not serve its purpose well enough. The steel flat bars and the bolts connecting them have been routed too prominently on the front of the sculptures, and the elements are corroding when exposed to the weather. A new reinforcement system to stabilise the sculptures is required.

Stone detailing

The front elevation of the Korniakta-Królewska Tenement House was built of traditional building materials - stone and brick and covered with plaster. It was found that almost all of the stone detail present in the façade was made of fine-grained limestone of local origin - the portal and rafters of the balcony on the ground floor, the window frames together with the pediments of the second and third floors, the cornices, the crests and the individual carvings in the finial of the attic. At the same time, these are the oldest parts, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries. Elements added later such as the balcony (late 18th century) and the plinth (early 20th century) were made of light yellow sandstone.

All details made of stone and located within the ground floor have been repainted black several times. In the upper parts of the façade, some of the stone frames and pediments and even some of the carved details of the attic have been covered with cement screed ("sawn"). In parallel, the stone is subject to natural deterioration processes - weathering and erosion caused by the presence of water. The aim of the conservation work should be to clean the stone of the build-up, locally strengthen it, underpin the detached parts and fill in the defects in the form, as well as to modernise the flashings, which have a significant impact on the state of preservation of the stone in many parts of the façade.

A particular conservation measure will be the restoration of the original (i.e. pre-mid-19th century) shape of the second-floor window openings. The slatted, moulded frames and the rosettes at the base of the frames have been narrowed to accommodate the larger window frames. The change negatively affected the mutual proportions of the framing elements and thus the aesthetics of the entire historic façade.

rusticated plasterwork

The state of preservation of the rusticated parts is poor - their entire surface requires extensive conservation work. A critically important activity in this context will be a thorough check - after the façade scaffolding has been erected - of the adhesion and cohesion of the plaster coatings. The scope of further work should include the removal of identified layers of eroded and detached plaster from the substrate, the removal of secondary cement slurries, local fillings and entire reconstructed batches of cement mortar. It is proposed to use lime mortar for plaster reconstruction and silicate paint for painting.

Balcony

In particularly poor condition is the balcony at the base of the first floor - the stone slabs of the platform and the wrought iron balustrade set into it. Upon inspection, both the balustrade and the balcony platform were found to be loose as a result of erosion of the stone and corrosion of the iron where the bars were embedded. The secondary cover of the platform, made of galvanised sheet metal, prevents inspection of the surface of the stone slabs, but the damage observed on the profiled leading edge of the blocks and on the underside is evidence of many years of exposure to damaging atmospheric agents.

The conservation work was carried out between 2024 and 2025 as part of the Polonica Institute's strategic programme 'Protection of Polish Cultural Heritage Abroad'.