When we toured Ukraine, we stayed in Lwów two nights, so we had ample opportunity to see some of the highlights of that city. I’ve written about some of them previously, but one of the (many) highlights was when Alicja and I visited two famous old churches near the center of the old city of Lwów. You can see my pictures of these churches here: http://poland.leonkonieczny.com/Poland%202011/Lwów%20Churches/index.html.
The first was St. George’s Cathedral. The present church (a cathedral, seat of the bishop) was built between 1746 and 1762, but it is actually the third church to be built on this site. The first was built around 1280 and the second was built after 1340 for the Eastern Orthodox Church. Eventually, the present church was built and in the 1800s, it became the mother church of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC)–the UGCC is actually a branch of the Roman Catholic church, though that history is a bit complicated for me to cover here. Under the Soviets after World War II, the UGCC was heavily persecuted and this church became part of the Russian Orthodox Church. Following Ukrainian independence in 1990, it once again became a part of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the major seat of that church. That seat was moved to Kiev in 2005, but this church is still a major part of the UGCC.
St. George’s Cathedral has been undergoing quite a restoration since 2005. It sits on a hill overlooking a large area of the old city. The architecture is a mixture of western and traditional orthodoxy. In the tomb underneath are buried some of the major figures of the UGCC including some Cardinals and Metropolitans. We saw their tombs. You enter the complex through a large and ornate gate. The church sits on one side and across from it is the residence of the bishop, a place where Pope John Paul II stayed when he visited Lwów in 2001. While we were there, we witnessed a baptism going on. It was an amazing sight as well.
A second historic church we visited is the Church of St. Olha and Elizabeth. It was originally built as a Roman Catholic Church (maybe now you can sense the complicate religious history of this part of Ukraine–which was part of Poland at one time–with its mix of Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic and Russian/Eastern Orthodox). It was built in 1903-1911 in neo-Gothic style and was named St. Elizabeth’s. It was envisioned as the first Lwów landmark visitors would see when they arrived by train at the nearby main terminal.
The church was damaged in World War II and, after the removal of all Polish (and hence Roman Catholic) people from Ukraine by the Soviets, it was used as a warehouse. But, with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the rise of a newly independent Ukraine it was returned to the church, the Greek Catholic Church, and reconsecrated as the Greek Catholic church of Sts. Olha and Elizabeth. While there, we saw yet another baptism. Take a look at the pictures, it is an amazing place as well.
