The text describes the Archcathedral Church in Lviv, the construction of which was initiated by Casimir the Great. Construction of the church elements began in 1344 under the supervision of architects Peter Stecher and Peter Scheller. According to the author of the article, the edifice was different from what it was "today", i.e. in the 19th century. The text tells the whole story of the church's expansion and its subsequent restoration by Archbishop Sierakowski. The paintings in the church are also described, including portraits of archbishops or Polish kings. (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1864, T:9, pp. 198-199., after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź).

A modernised reading of the text

Lviv Archcathedral Church.

One of the most magnificent, and together the oldest, edifices of the city of Lviv is the Archcathedral Church. It is distinguished by the boldness of its shapes and the purity of the Old Gothic style in its main structure. From the outside, however, this impression is spoiled by the chapels of various shapes leaning against the church walls. These annexes, which are lower than the main nave of the church and do not harmonise with it in terms of style, detract from the grandeur of the building and make it heavy on the eyes. The Lviv Cathedral was built by Casimir the Great after he had conquered the Rus, as a result of a vow he had made beforehand.

Construction began in 1344, first under the name of the Holy Trinity, and later under that of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and continued for several dozen years. The pious citizens of Lviv, glad to see such a magnificent ornament for their city, contributed in their holy zeal to the acceleration of the church's construction, for, as Zimorowicz testifies, "they bore the burden of the church with their own hands". The greatest contribution to this, however, was the generosity of Władysław Jagiełło.

The construction was initially carried out by the architects Piotr Slecher and Scheller. It progressed to the extent that the church was consecrated by the blessed Archbishop Jakub Strepa in 1405, and was not finally completed by Prom, or Grom, the architect from Wrocław, until 1481. However, less than fifty years after its completion, a fire destroyed the church tower and the church itself was severely damaged. The then Archbishop Wilczek rebuilt the tower at his own expense and renovated the damaged church. The former building was different from the present one. Inside, the church walls were modestly painted grey.

Above the entrance door was a small grey tower, which served as a bell tower. The outside of the church was disfigured by numerous appendages from different times and surrounded by a cemetery, tightly packed with chapels and monuments. A wall stretching around the cemetery demarcated it from the town. In one corner of the cemetery stood the Garden Chapel, built at the expense of the Hungarian Boim, which still stands today and attracts attention with its beautiful sculptures. Apart from this one, there were several other chapels, among them the Domagalewicz chapel, which housed the miraculous painting of the Virgin Mary, which was later moved and placed in the main altar in the church.

In the cemetery there was also a statue of Jesus lying in the tomb, with intricate carving, which today is set up outside by the church wall on the northern side and is usually surrounded by a kneeling group of devotees. Just below the cemetery on the west side, opposite the present-day entrance door to the church, were the town's butcheries, very improperly placed near the church, about which the chapter argued for a long time with the magistrate, and especially with Archbishop Jan Próchnicki; however, for many years the efforts remained unsuccessful. The location of the church exposed its walls to constant damage.

It stands on a slope that used to fall towards the city ramparts. Hence, the walls, exposed to the drainage of water and waste, became waterlogged at the bottom. The nearby butcheries also contributed to the pollution. Nevertheless, over time, the church and its interior suffered great damage, so that by the early 18th century its condition was already deplorable and in urgent need of restoration. The rotten roofs were pouring into the church and the adjoining chapels. Thirty-two altars pinned to the walls were collapsing, and some were in danger of falling down completely.

In addition to this, the interior of the church, crammed with a large number of tombstones and monuments, of which Starowolski already mentions more than forty in his description, was so full of pews, friars' chests and the like that there was little room for the pious in the vast sanctuary, and neither processions nor other solemn ceremonies could be held in the church. This state of affairs had long drawn the attention of the chapter. As early as 1720 and 1733, when Jan Skarbek occupied the archbishop's chair, thoughts of renovating the church began.

However, the project required a great deal of effort, and was not easy to carry out. In 1737, following the ascension of archbishop Nikolay Vyzhytskyi to the cathedral, the idea of restoring the Lviv archcathedral was taken up again. The first part of the fund needed for this purpose was established at this time from a donation by Duchess Theophila of Leszno Wiśniowiecka, castellan of Krakow, who, having lost her husband, restored the chapel known as the Buczacy chapel and, having laid her husband's remains there, donated the sum of 10,000 zloty in 1741 for the restoration of the entire church. Wyżycki, although not having much money at his disposal, promised to give the same amount, and the chapter donated 5,000 zlotys, so according to the value of money at the time, this was already quite a substantial sum with which to start work.

In addition, all fines paid by the clergy were earmarked to augment this fund. In 1752, the materials began to be purchased and brought in; however, the lack of funds caused an interruption in the restoration of the church, and it was not until Wyżycki's successor, Wacław Hieronim Sierakowski, that the work was successfully completed, despite numerous difficulties. Sierakowski began by collecting donations and contributions. To begin with, he donated 370 ducats in gold; surplus church silver, as well as that from the Domagalewicz chapel, was sold by order of the chapter.

Of the other gifts collected through Sierakowski's efforts, I would like to mention the ring with the crucifix carved on onyx, donated by Fr Ignacy Krasicki, which was valued at 2,970 zloty. Sierakowski also earmarked all the income and corvée labour from the archbishop's estates near Lviv, Obrószyn, Stawczany, and Rzęsna in Poland and Russia, for the running of the factory he had begun. But all this was not enough. In the course of the work, new and larger outgoings absorbed the gifts of pious generosity, and the burden of the work that had begun always fell on Sierakowski's own head.

To ensure that the work did not cease, he did not begrudge any sacrifice on his part and moved the last of his resources. He pawned his own table silver, sold the old wines from his cellar and finally even his sable coat, which shows that, despite his advanced age, the old man did not hesitate to put himself at risk for personal ailments and ordinary comforts, just to bring his favourite idea to fruition. In order to restore the old building to its former grandeur, it fell to him not only to think of renewing and re-building in some places himself, "Vade et quae in corde habes fac, - Dominus enim tecum est." Go and do what you have in mind, for the Lord is with you. The happy Sierakowski then immediately set about moving the painting.

This took place with great solemnity on 11 May 1765, the eve of St Mary's Day. The procession included many clergy, the chapter, all religious orders, the magistrate, confraternities and guilds, and countless members of the public. The image was carried around the square to the ringing of bells, the roar of mortars and the sound of music, before being brought through the triumphal gate set up for the purpose to the archcathedral church, where it was placed in the great altar, on seven silver pillars covered with numerous votive offerings.

A particular meteorological phenomenon was regarded as a lucky omen for the transfer: during the whole ceremony, while it was raining heavily in the suburbs, the sun was shining brightly over the square and the church, and the weather was the most beautiful for the whole ceremony. Throughout the octave following the transfer of the image, there were daily services and sermons appropriate to the ceremony. The painting remains to this day in the main altar, covered on weekdays by a large painting by Martin Jablonski, depicting the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Domagalewicz chapel was abolished soon afterwards, during the restoration of the church, along with the other chapels in the cemetery, except for the one in Ogrójecowa.

Archbishop Sierakowski, having made the transfer of the painting from the Domagalewicz chapel one of his main wishes, set about restoring the church zealously. When the external restoration work was already well under way, four years after its commencement, it was time to think about the appropriate decoration of the interior walls of the Lord's temple. Sierakowski called upon the then famous painter Stroiński, a native of Lviv, who had already been commissioned to paint the church of the Virgin Mary of the Snow, and who had given evidence of his excellent artistic skill there. Rastawiecki's Dictionary of Polish Painters contains a contract between Archbishop Sierakowski and Stroiński concerning the painting of the Lviv Cathedral. Under this contract Stroiński undertook to paint the interior of the cathedral "lavishly and with the best imagination", in which he was obliged to consult with the members of the chapter.

The painter took on a difficult task. The Gothic style is not at all compatible with al fresco painting. The walls, interspersed with narrow windows running from top to bottom, letting the light through the multi-coloured panes, the niches in which the serious figures of the Lord's saints are placed, the vaults criss-crossed with ribs of soaring arches, dividing them into narrow triangular fields, do not offer enough space for paintings of great size, appropriate to the grandeur of the whole structure. The walls of gothic churches usually remain grey and dark, and only the multi-coloured windows and paintings in the altars add variety or rather contrast to the gloomy greyness of gothic churches, which is conducive to pious reverie.

However, Archbishop Sierakowski was not concerned with the conformity with the original style of the building, being an aesthete of little importance, as it turned out in all other decorations and details in the restoration of the church; so it was at his will that Stroiński set about covering the vaults and walls of the newly restored cathedral with fresco paintings. It must be admitted, however, that he fulfilled his task with diligence, talent and art, which testified favourably to his painting skills. The frescoes in the Lviv Cathedral are very beautiful, especially for a self-made painter who was not familiar with the sources and models of the great schools of painting.

In spite of the difficulties just mentioned, which arose from the very composition of the gothic structure, Stroiński was able to combine them into one series of paintings covering the whole vault of the temple and forming, as it were, one whole idea. As the Arch-Cathedral Church is called the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the artist drew inspiration for his series of paintings from this. He was occupied with this work for more than three years: having begun painting the walls of the presbytery in 1769, he completed the nave of the church in 1771 and 1772.

The interior of the hermitage was painted by another painter, the Italian Tavellio. Before Stroiński had even finished painting the nave, the rebuilding of the church had already progressed to such an extent that at Pentecost in 1771 Sierakowski celebrated the first service in front of the great altar, the one from the Domagalewicz chapel. Sierakowski's fervent wishes were finally fulfilled when the work to restore the church was completed in 1776, and on d. 23 April, in the presence of six bishops, he performed the rite of consecration of the church with great solemnity. The relics of saints Fidelis, Amata and Emeric, sent from Rome, were placed in the great altar, and the same year, a month later, on 23 May, Sierakowski also solemnly crowned the miraculous painting of the Mother of God in the main altar.

Let us now enter the interior of the renovated church and look at it as we see it today. Beautiful and full of simplicity is its original construction. The light vaulting of the nave, pierced by sharp-angled loopholes and flowing upwards through a Gothic cross-beam with projecting ribs, rests on four upward-facing pillars. The church, oblong in shape, is 30 fathoms long, half of which is for the nave, half for the presbytery. The width of the nave without side chapels is 12½ fathoms.

The presbytery is only 5 fathoms wide, which means that the nave is too short for the presbytery, but is nevertheless exquisite in size, and its simplicity and lightness of style delight connoisseurs. The presbytery is flanked by the sacristy on the north side and the eremitage on the south side. Six chapels stretch along both sides of the church, three on each side in parallel. The style of these chapels, as well as the entire decoration of the church inside, is completely at odds with the original style of construction.

The mixed and rebuilt ornaments have tarnished the beautiful simplicity of the gothic building, hiding its lightness and making it overdone with variety. It was not Sierakowski himself who was to blame for this, but also the poor taste at the end of the 18th century, when there was no one to explain it to him and provide him with more appropriate models for the restoration of the church in a uniform style. The main altar to the east is surrounded by mosaic wood columns with gilded decoration, as are the other altars.

The walls and capitals are decorated with painted cornices, foliage, gilded stuccowork, vases and bouquets, with angels and holy fathers painted in between; all this, although painted with great care, is in glaring contradiction to the simple, light and beautiful gothic structure of the church, distorting and obscuring its original charm. The same must be said of the altars, which are attached to the columns of the church, as well as the chapels.

The most beautiful of the latter is the Kampian Chapel, containing the tombstones of four members of this bourgeois family. Its marble decoration is reminiscent of the chapels in Wawel Cathedral. The four large tombstones, set into the walls, are surrounded by marble carved cornices, stuccowork and rosettes, encircling the walls of the chapel and flowing into one with the altar located in its depth. The marble altar, the walls, columns and pilasters are of black marble, the ornaments and cornices of white, the statues of bronze.

The sculptures extend, artfully bound together, to the top of the vault, where at the top in bas-relief are depicted jackdaws, the coat of arms of Russia.It now remains for us to examine the paintings and monuments. We are already familiar with the lavishly and imaginatively executed frescoes by Stroinski, covering the entire vault. The walls of the presbytery provided the artist with a larger space for his paintbrush to develop more freely. It was for this reason that Stroiński covered the walls of the presbytery with large-scale frescoes depicting historical scenes relating to the miraculous painting of the Mother of God, placed in the main altar.

On the left side, a large-size painting depicts the memorable moment when John Casimir, on 1 April 1656, was crushed by an unholy work of art. Archbishop Lukasz Baraniecki, who died in our memory, erected a monument to Archbishop Ankwież. On a plaque of black marble, framed by beautiful architectural sandstone ornaments, the Abdank coat of arms was placed, with a pertinent inscription in Latin below. Of the memorials to private individuals, the first to catch the eye are those on either side of the entrance to the country, commending it to the care of the Virgin Mary, and kneeling before this here image of her, making a vow to relieve the plight of the people after the end of the war. Below on the same side, Archbishop Sierakowski, kneeling in pontifical dress, surrounded by the clergy.

This painting depicts the transfer of the miraculous image of the Virgin Mary from the chapel to the church. On the opposite wall, to the right of the altar, we see two large frescoes, one of which depicts Sobieski, when he was still Hetman of the Crown Estate, in life-size, with a mace in his hand, wearing armour and a tiger cloak draped over his shoulders; at his feet are two knights, one holding a mace and a shield with the inscription: "Salus infirmorum", the other a shield also bearing the inscription: "Regina regni Poloniae ora". The upper part of the painting depicts Sobieski's miraculous recovery from a serious illness in 1672.

The second large painting on the same wall depicts the deposition of flags captured from the enemy in front of the image of the Virgin Mary. In addition to the above paintings, the beautiful frescoes decorating the dome of the former Buczacz chapel, nowadays the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament, deserve special attention. These allegorical paintings, in keeping with the chapel's present purpose, relate mainly to the mystery of the Blessed Sacrament. Almost all the paintings in the altars are by a native of Lviv from Chojnice. The most noteworthy for the visitor of the Lviv Cathedral is the collection of oil-painted historical portraits that hang from top to bottom on the walls of both sacristies.

In addition to several effigies of Polish kings, these are contemporary portraits of all Lviv archbishops from the mid-17th century to the present day, as well as of founders and benefactors of the church. For the historian and archaeologist, this collection is invaluable, although of little artistic value. In addition to portraits of archbishops, it contains images of: Władysław Jagiełło, Aleksander, Sigismund III the Old and Stefan Batory; also Tomasz Zamojski, Crown Prince of Poland, Paweł Boim, Doctor of Philosophy, two Sierakowskis and other eminent townsmen and dignitaries. Altogether there are about forty paintings in the sacristies.

Having seen the paintings, let us move on to the monuments and gravestones. In the first chapel to the right of the great altar, now called the Buczackis Chapel, there are two monuments which deserve special attention both for their antiquity and for the way they have been made. The first one is in the shape of a stone sarcophagus with a bronze bas-relief depicting a knight lying down, covered in heavy armour and leaning on one arm; a helmet is placed at his chest. This is a monument to Michał Buczacki, who was killed in a battle with the Tatars in 1438. This sepulchre has no inscription; the inscription on a separate plaque must have been lost when the monument was moved. The second monument, as evidenced by an inscription engraved on an iron tablet, is the tomb of Stanisław Żółkiewski, Voivode of Russia, the Hetman's father.

On a stone sarcophagus, also carved in bronze in bas-relief, stands a knight, holding the hilt of his sabre with his left hand and supporting his hips with his right; at his feet is a helmet with feathers and the Lubicz coat of arms. In terms of art, these monuments are not without value. There is a certain, so to speak, chivalrous roughness, simplicity and solemnity in their whole arrangement and execution. To the archaeologist, they have preserved a fair depiction of the details of the armament of the time, and the faces apparently with a natural likeness made. All the other monuments are much more recent, and thus no longer possess the ancient value of the two mentioned.

Archbishop Sierakowski erected a splendid marble monument next to the great altar in memory of six Lviv archbishops, his predecessors, as testified by the Latin inscription on a slab of white marble surrounded by ornaments in high relief. We cannot describe all the monuments here due to the limited size of this description, so we will limit ourselves to mentioning the main ones. Archbishop Sierakowski himself, the renovator of the Cathedral Church, has a monument dedicated to his memory in the Chapel of Christ Crucified.

On a sarcophagus made of black marble rests a figure made of white marble, depicting Sierakowski in his pontifical robes, with a mitre on his head; in his hand on his chest he holds a cross; under his head there is a book. By the opposite wall, a statue in a similar style and from the same time, depicts Archbishop Kicki, in a kneeling posture; the figure is made of white marble. Both statues are magnificent, large in size, but lack the simplicity that characterises truly beautiful and sublime works of art. Archbishop Lukasz Baraniecki, who died in our memory, erected a monument to Archbishop Ankvizh.

The black marble plaque, framed by beautiful architectural sandstone ornaments, bears the Abdank coat of arms, with a pertinent inscription in Latin below. The most striking of the monuments to private individuals are those on either side of the entrance to the presbytery, two of which were created in the current century. One was made in 1818 for Bogusław and Konstancja Ustrzycka, by their daughter Urszula Tarnowska. In an ancient-style niche made of pink marble stands an urn with the Przestrzał and Grzymała coats of arms on it and a plaque with an inscription underneath.

The second earlier monument, executed in 1806 by Hartman, is to Katarzyna Jablonowska, castellan of Wiślica, née Ossolińska; a column of black marble with two allegorical figures leaning against it, one seated, the other standing, depicting contemplation and sorrow; beside it two shields of arms. On the column is placed an urn, half-lightly covered with drapery. On the urn a bas-relief depicts a sacrifice in the ancient style; at the bottom of the urn a pelican, the emblem of parental love. In general, this monument is distinguished by the refinement of the chisel, the grace and lightness of the drapery. In the chapel of the Holy Sacrament we can also find the tombstone of the Krosnowski family, and in the chapel of the Kampians - the above-mentioned four tombstones, included in the entirety of the chapel's decorations.

But the most beautiful in artistic terms are the two monuments in the Zamojski Chapel, now closed, the first in a row on the left of the main altar. As can be inferred from a number of circumstances, these are the monuments to Archbishop Jan Zamojski, who died in 1614, and his successor Próchnicki, although the inscriptions preserved in Starowolski's monuments have already been lost. The style and layout of these two apparently contemporaneous monuments confirm their origins in the early 17th century. Despite neglect, they have survived undamaged to date.

These are two stone sarcophagi with marble statues of the two archbishops in a recumbent posture, with the facial features apparently preserved in a similar manner. The beautifully lace-carved robes, as well as the simple and natural arrangement, make these statues valuable monuments of art, all the more so when we learn that they are the work of a family chisel. Felicyan Lobeski, who described in detail the paintings and monuments of Lviv churches and studied them thoroughly for this purpose, after cleaning the dust of the two mentioned monuments, discovered the signature of Adalbert Prophenkowicz on one of them.

The history of art has not preserved this name and here we meet him for the first time; but judging from the work, he was an outstanding artist who deserves one of the first places among Polish sculptors. The visitor of the Lviv Cathedral still has to look through the local archives and the treasury, located on the floor above the sacristies. Among other valuable documents, the archive contains the original document of the Union of Brest, written in 1596 in Brest, in the St. Nicholas Cathedral, under the leadership of Michael Rahoza, Metropolitan of Kyiv and Halych, in the presence of all the clergy of the Rus, with signatures and seals.

Worth seeing in the treasury is an antique clock, the gift of King Jan Sobieski, as well as six large bronze candlesticks, cast from Turkish cannons taken by the same hero at Vienna, a golden sceptre, also donated by him to the miraculous image of Our Lady, large silver crosses, three silver reliquaries, elaborately carved, precious and ancient chasubles, one of them the gift of Queen Jadwiga, embroidered with her own hand, etc. Last but not least, there are two cannonballs hanging from the top of the eastern side of the church, with inscriptions underneath which prove that they are Swedish thirty-six-pounder bullets which fell into the church during the bombardment of Lviv by the Swedes on 27 September 1672 in a terrible storm but did not damage anything.

Count Aleksander Stadnicki, the recently deceased well-known author of several works and scientific dissertations, left a legacy of 40,000 zloty for the completion of the second tower of the Lviv Archcathedral Church. However, his family considered this idea unfeasible and, at their request, the legation was added to the rest of the inheritance by way of court proceedings.