Coronation of the Bohorodytsi (Our Lady) icon (27 May 1905)

The coronation of the Borohodytsi (Our Lady) icon took place in Lviv in May 1905. This event had huge symbolic meaning for the city's Polish community, the Catholic Church, and brought together several thousand people on the square. In as much as previous similar events had occurred in Lviv before the apportionment of the Rzeczpospolita (the last time in 1751), and the coronation of the icon in 1905 was initiated by the Jesuit order, which during a prolonged period had been prohibited by the Austrian authorities, the event was perceived as evidence of the rebirth of the city's Polish character.

The image itself is a copy of the Madonna found in the Borghese chapel in the Santa Maria Maggiore papal basilica, which Pope Pius V granted to the Jesuit order. From 1630, the icon was located in the Jesuit church in Lviv. By government order, in 1773 precious stones were removed from the icon, and Jesuits were allowed to return to the city only in 1836.

Symbolic were the icon's ornaments. They were crafted in Lviv with the appearance of Poland's Casimir and Jagiellonian crowns, while the Bohorodytsi (Our Lady) icon was treated by the Polish press as being the Queen of the Polish Crowns. Along with this, during the time of celebration, in Lviv was "renewed the Polish tradition" of playing on the pipe –hejnału – from the Town Hall tower and the balconies of Jesuit churches.

Itinerary

The procession set off from the Jesuit church along Ploscha Pidkova (Sw. Ducha) and Prospect Svobody (Hetmańska) to Ploscha Mitskevicha (plac Mariacki) (to the sculpture of Our Lady). The return route ran across Teatralna Street.