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drum supported by pendentives. The four massive pillars
of the crossing sustain the pointed arches of the vaulting
above the nave and the north and south aisles which, like
the nave, also end in small apses, adjacent to the central
one. Cornices of the pillars are decorated with stalactite
work (ornamentation consisting of numerous corbelled
squinches clustered together) carved in stone, its forms
evidently derived from Islamic art. Similar ornamental
motifs carved in low relief adorn the archivolt of the chancel
arch [Figs 3–4]. These carvings, as well as stone slabs
with traditional Armenian, ornamental votive crosses (the
so-called ‘khachkars’, literally ‘cross-stones’) formed the
earliest, original decoration of the cathedral [Figs 5–6].
Later the walls were entirely covered with Byzantine-style
murals, in all likelihood executed in tempera, of which
only small fragments were discovered in the splaying of
a small window in the southern wall during the restoration
in 1925. These were cautiously dated to the turn of the
sixteenth century. Remnants of murals, most probably the
oldest ones in the cathedral, dating perhaps from the end of
the fourteenth century, were found on the south face of the
north-western pillar of the crossing. They have not been
preserved and can be seen only in an archival photograph.
Fragments of other, probably later, wall paintings are visible
on the east face of the same pillar. Still different painted
decoration was discovered during the 1908 restoration in
the intrados of the chancel arch but the murals have not
been preserved [Fig. 7]. From the records of a Dominican
friar Martin Gruneweg, written at the end of the sixteenth
century, it is known that around 1582 ‘Bogusz, an Armenian
painter’ (identifiable with Paweł Bogusz Donoszowicz)
covered the cathedral with murals depicting scenes from
the Bible. The paintings are lost and Gruneweg’ s mention
is the only record of their existence.
Additional elements, like the open exterior galleries
running along the façade and both lateral walls were added
to the basic structure of the cathedral in the sixteenth century
[Figs 8–9]. Successively they were incorporated into
the main body of the growing building: the narthex-like
part of the galleries in the west became one bay of the future
nave, the northern gallery was changed into a sacristy
and a treasury; only the southern part was left untouched
and has survived in its original form to this day. Due to
the limited space inside the church for the ever-growing
congregation, in the seventeenth century the nave was extended
towards the west through the addition of two large
rectangular bays, forming in conjunction with a slightly
smaller ‘narthex’-bay a relatively spacious interior. This
extension inevitably changed the spatial layout of the
cathedral, giving it very much the appearance of a Latin
(i.e. Roman Catholic) church, as its plan was now closer to
that of a Latin cross (the old part being the chancel of the
new cathedral). It was around the same year, 1630, that the
Armenian Archbishop of Lvov Mikołaj Torosowicz (Nikol
Torosovich) accepted union with Rome, thus subordinating
himself and the whole Archdiocese to the Pope, and
starting the Armenian Catholic, Uniate Church here. It was
not an instant change but rather a lengthy process. The union
was achieved as a result of acceptance on the part of
Armenians of the Roman dogmas. Hitherto the Armenians
of Lvov belonged to the Armenian Apostolic Church.
The union with Rome resulted in manifold changes,
also to the cathedral building, most of them being alterations
to the church’ s interior decoration, which over the
following almost three centuries led gradually to the near
total disappearance of the majority of the interior’ s Armenian
features. Only the rite remained old though an ongoing
process of unification was started in this area as well.
In order to consolidate and strengthen the union, the Roman
Order of the Theatines was called to Lvov in 1664 to
educate the Armenian clergy in a newly established college
there. This was the first step on the way to the Latinization
of the liturgy. The Armenian Catholic Archdiocese of Lvov
differed from other Catholic dioceses in Poland precisely
in the way in which their religious services were celebrated.
Nevertheless, with time, the ritual took on many elements
characteristic of the Latin, Roman liturgy. Thus, with their
language hardly preserved, this most important (and in
fact, only) feature of Armenian ethnic independence – their
religion – was seriously threatened.
In the aftermath of several fires throughout the seventeenth
and early eighteenth centuries, the cathedral was
renovated and refurbished. In the beginning of the eighteenth
century it acquired a new interior decoration. Later
the walls were adorned with partly figurative, partly ornamental
paintings in the Régence style (early Rococo).
These were Biblical scenes framed by the Régence bandwork
ornament of interlacing bands and strips with tendril-like
motifs. The old, probably still medieval murals
and all the above-described stone carvings, constituting
the original architectural decoration of the cathedral, were
evenly and entirely covered with plaster and stucco work
in the form of pilasters, cornices and other decorative elements.
All this was meant to make the cathedral look like
any other Roman Catholic church interior [Figs 10–13].
By the middle of the eighteenth century, matching early
Rococo furnishings (the main and side altars, pulpit and
pews) complemented the refurbishment. The description
of the cathedral’ s interior of 1853 mentions eleven altars:
‘one high altar and ten smaller ones, five on either side of
the church’. In 1862 the early-Rococo murals were replaced
with new ones, unfortunately, of inferior quality. They were
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