Armenian Cathedral, Lviv
The Armenian community's cathedral of 1356–1363, with quiet courtyards and Rosen's murals of the 1920s.
The Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God was built in 1356–1363 by the architect Doring from Silesia at the expense of the merchants Jacob of Caffa and Panos of Kayseri; the walls of rubble stone are 1.5 m thick, and the dome is made up of ceramic jugs. Layers then accumulated: the arcaded galleries of 1437, the bell tower of 1571, the central nave of 1630; in the courtyard stands the column of St Christopher of 1726. In 1908–1927 the cathedral was restored under the direction of Franciszek Maczynski: in 1912–1913 the dome was covered with the mosaic "Holy Trinity" after cartoons by Jozef Mehoffer, and in 1925–1929 Jan Henryk Rosen painted the interior — these frescoes have no parallel in the sacred painting of Halychyna. The oldest fresco, with Armenian inscriptions of the end of the 14th century, was uncovered in 1924. In 1947–2000 the building was a storehouse for museum collections; on 7 January 2001 the Liturgy was celebrated here again. The roof over the western dome was restored at the end of 2025 at the expense of the Polonika Institute.
The courtyards are open by day; the cathedral is a working church of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and no fixed timetable is published.