St. George's Cathedral

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This splendid Cathedral, standing on top of a hill in the Old Town, is a real gem of Ukrainian baroque architecture. This majestic temple, perfectly blended into its surrounding landscape, is not only a unique architectural monument, but it is also the main church of Ukrainian Greek Catholics. For many centuries, Greek Catholic archbishops and patriarchs resided on its territory.

The local residents have especially reverent attitude to the St. George's Cathedral, because it embodies a whole chapter in Lviv’s history. The first temple appeared on this hill in the times of the Principality of Halych-Volhynia, in the 13th century. It was a small wooden church, standing near a defense monastery. But a century later, at the siege of Lviv, the Polish king Casimir III ordered his troops to burn both buildings. Shortly thereafter, a stone temple, built in the Byzantine style, was raised on the place of the old church. It existed for over 400 years.

St. George's Cathedral, which took twenty years to build, appeared on the hill in the center of Lviv at the end of the 18th century. It is a harmonic architectural ensemble, which consists of the temple itself, the metropolitan's chamber, a chapter house, bell tower, and majestic front gates, adorned with figures of saints. A monumental stairway, decorated with sculptures of eight geniuses, leads straight to the Cathedral. The interior decoration of the temple also strikes with its richness and splendor. The temple’s main shrine is the miraculous Virgin Mary icon from the 17th century.

St. George's Cathedral, along with the rest of Lviv’s historical center, is on the list of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites. In 2001, when Pope John Paul II visited Ukraine he stayed in the chambers of this Cathedral.

Address: pl. Sviatogo Yura, 5.

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