Church of Transfiguration, Eastern Orthodox church in Old Town, Lviv, Ukraine.
The Church of Transfiguration stands on the foundations of the Trinitarian Holy Trinity Church, built 1703–1731 in French classicist style. Rebuilt 1878–1898 to Sylvester Havryshkevych's design, it kept the original walls, added a semicircular apse to the short presbytery, and placed domes on the towers. The interior was adapted for Eastern Rite liturgy.
Construction started in 1703 and was completed in 1731 as a Roman Catholic place of worship. The building suffered artillery damage during 1848 civil unrest and underwent significant reconstruction afterward.
The parish became a centre of the Ukrainian national movement in the first half of the 20th century, set against the rival Narodnyi Dim, a stronghold of Russophile circles. Tadeusz Popiel designed the iconostasis in 1900–1901, and Teofil Kopystynsky painted the Transfiguration image behind the altar. Stained-glass windows of Ruthenian saints were made in Innsbruck in 1896–1898 after sketches by Anton Pylychowski.
The church stands at 21 Krakivska Street in the Halytskyi district of the Old Town, just north of the Market Square. The 1919 shell that hit the wall from Korniakta Street is still set into the masonry with its date inscription, so look up at the side facing that street.
On 6 January 1919, during the Ukrainian-Polish fighting for Lviv, a shell struck the wall on Korniakta Street but failed to explode. It was set into the masonry with the inscription "6.1.1919"; repairs in the mid-1990s erased the day and month, and the restored inscription now reads "5.1.1919".
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