Pl. Katedralna, 1 – Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary

Mid-14^th c. – 1481 – the church was constructed.
1414 – the church became a cathedral (the archdiocese was transferred to Lviv).
1441 – the first written record of a cemetery around the church.
1527-1550 – the cathedral was rebuilt after the city fire of 1527.
1760-1780 – the cathedral was modernized in the Baroque style at the initiative of Archbishop Wacław Hieronim Sierakowski.
1780s – the cathedral crypts were closed, the cemetery dismantled, and the Katedralna square was reconstructed.
1890s – a "re-Gothisation" of the presbitery and a restoration of the floor; window tracery was installed under the management of architect Michał Kowalczuk; stained-glass windows were installed.
1908-1914, 1923-1930 – a thorough restoration of the cathedral under the management of architect Tadeusz Obmiński.

This cathedral or the Metropolitan Basilica of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lviv was once the main Roman Catholic church in Lviv. In old times it was used jointly by the city's German and Polish communities. Today the mass is celebrated there in Ukrainian and Polish.

The date when the construction of the church began is not exactly known as original documents have not survived. There are several hypotheses. First of all, the construction of the church is associated with the inclusion of Galicia in the Polish Kingdom at the time of Casimir III (1340s) and with the date when the  Magdeburg Rights were granted to the city of Lviv (1356). The city was arranged according to the Magdeburg Rights: at its center, there was a market square with the main city church not far from there. In Lviv, the church was erected south-east of the Rynok (Market) square, near Halytska (Galician) street which was a piece of the ancient trade route connecting the cities of the Middle East and Western Europe. Probably, there used to be an older church on the site of the present-day one (Mohytych, 2008, 69).
The construction of the church lasted for over 130 years. The presbitery was completed in 1404. The work was managed by two builders: first by Piotr Stecher and then by Mikołaj Gonzage (Ganseke). In 1405 the building was consecrated and devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The construction of the church was completed by Joachim Grom and Ambroży Rabisch, builders from Wroclaw, and managed by Jerzy Scheller of Lviv in 1481 (Łoziński, 1898, 9). In 1414 Lviv became the capital of the Archdiocese (Zajączkowski, 1924, 47) and, according to historians, it was about that time that the church was elevated to the metropolitan level.

After a fire which occurred in 1490 the presbitery was restored by carpenter Nikel Klocz (Klos). In 1494, a choir loft was added in the western part of the church, builder Hans Blecher had the side naves vaulted; also, the roof over the sacristy (north of the presbitery) was completed. In 1510 pipe organs are mentioned for the first time (Zajączkowski, 1924, 51-52).

The great city fire of 1527 affected the church as well: its western part suffered the most damage, and the bell tower was burned down. By 1550 the building was restored; a quite significant role in the restoration was played by Archbishop Bernard Wilczek (Zajączkowski, 1924, 47).

When completed, the church looked like a typical Gothic church with two towers at the west façade (the south tower was not completed). It was built of brick, had unplastered façades and virtually no décor. The church was not an independent object, but rather a part of a complex. Around it, on the site of the present-day Katedralna square, there was a cemetery fenced from the city by a wall. The wall had three gates: one from the Rynok square and two from what is now Teatralna street. A few houses south of the cathedral belonged to the Church, including the townhouse, whose modern address is Halytska street 4, where the Chapter was located.

The interior of the church changed in the course of the 16^th-mid-18^th centuries. Lviv patrician families and guilds used to build, at their own expense, lateral chapels, and installed altars and stalls all around the nave. In the church's crypts, famous Lvivites and church figures were buried. All interior furnishings had different sizes and nature depending on time, art trends, and customers' wealth. As of the mid-18^th century, the interior was overloaded; there could be several altars under each column and there were numerous entrances to the crypts in the middle of the nave. Thus, "there was almost no room left for people in the church" (Obmiński, 1929, 292). The destruction of the building because of precipitation, groundwater, weakening of the walls due to the arrangement of large arched openings led to the poor condition of the church.

In 1760-1776 a thorough reconstruction of the cathedral was conducted at the initiative of Archbishop Wacław Hieronim Sierakowski. He was going to eliminate the building's chaotic nature, to make it integral, to modernize and to decorate it in contemporary style. It is believed that  the Archbishop's aim was to surpass the newly built Baroque churches of the city – the Dominican сhurch and the church of St. George. The Archbishop's ideas were not supported by either the city or the Roman Catholic Chapter; a complaint was filed against him with the Tribunal of the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome (Lat. Sacra Congregatione Concilii), which banned such a reconstruction. However, Sierakowski found a way to circumvent the ban (Zajączkowski, 1924,299-301).

Wacław Sierakowski invested heavily in the reconstruction and got the best local architects, sculptors, and artists involved. The work was managed by architect Piotr Polejowski. In particular, the following persons were also involved: sculptor Maciej Polejowski, artist Stanisław Stroiński, carvers Franciszek Ołędzki and Jan Obrocki and others.

During the reconstruction, the original Gothic building's structure was preserved, but a lot of chapels added later were demolished. The remaining chapels were rebuilt. The appearance of the church from both outside and inside was unified. The red brick façades were plastered, the stepped wall ends (between the nave and the presbitery) were replaced with Baroque ones having volutes. The simple spire of the bell tower was replaced with a Baroque one. In the interior, Gothic profiles of the elements were chopped off or walled up, the profiles of the vaults' ribs were partly broken off. The walls, pillars, and vaults were covered with Baroque paintings. Gothic or Renaissance altars and furnishings were removed or transferred to other churches; new ones were made instead. Also, the entrance to the cathedral was changed. Initially, entrances for the laity were located on the north and south façades (now they are walled up, their Gothic trimming being notable); however, in the late 18^th century the entrances were arranged in the towers; tambours were added. These entrances have been functioning till today. Another tambour was built in the center of the west façade.

As a result of the reforms of Emperor Joseph II (1783), which prohibited burials within cities, the cemetery around the cathedral was dismantled, and a square was arranged there. Some graves were transferred to newly created suburban cemeteries. The elimination of the crypts was also demanded, but the Roman Catholic cathedral was the only city church where the crypts were allowed since many prominent persons had been buried there.

In the course of the 19^th century the cathedral did not change much. A wooden fence, placed around the building in the end of the previous century, was replaced with a Neo-Gothic forged fence (1840s) existing today, and Baroque sculptures of Apostles, moved from elsewhere, were placed on pedestals. In the interior, a new pulpit, which has been preserved by now, was installed. It was commissioned by Franciszek Witkowski, a curator, and produced by Sach, a Lviv metalworker (Smirnow, 2001, 78-79).

In the late 19^th century, within the preparation of the city for the General Provincial Exhibition (1894), the Roman Catholic Chapter decided to restore the cathedral. It was believed that the main city church did not correspond to the status of Lviv as a modern city, and to the actual needs of its inhabitants. The problem was that, because of the 18^th-century reconstruction, the cathedral looked Baroque, that is, far newer than its real age (Obmiński, 1932, 298). To manage the restoration a special committee was established, headed by Władysław Loziński, a well-known art historian. The work was managed by Michał Kowalczuk. The funds for the restoration were coming from different sources: from the Lviv Magistrate, from the Ministry of Education and Religions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, from the Galician Savings Bank, from private foundations and from donations made by noble families. The main idea of the restoration was to return the authentic, that is, Gothic appearance of the cathedral, although no documentary information on this appearance was available.

The restoration was a significant event for the city and caused considerable debate. The restorers' approach was rather radical: the Baroque sculptures and paintings were removed from the presbitery, though the main altar remained. The walls were stenciled with new ornamental Neo-Gothic paintings. The windows, which had been bricked up in the course of the Baroque reconstruction, were uncovered (except two). All presbitery windows were filled with tracery designed by Michał Kowalczuk (Mohytych, 2008, 71). Many Polish artists (Jan Matejko, Józef Mehoffer, Teodor Axentowicz and others) were involved in the design of stained-glass windows, as well as some noble families who were the sponsors. However, this transformation was increasingly criticized, and in the early years of the 20^th century it was stopped. Thus the "re-Gothisation" affected the presbitery only (except the central window of the west façade).

In the following years there was a need to continue the restoration works, but a different approach was used, aimed at conservation. In 1905-1907 two lateral chapels were restored in this way under the direction of architect Władysław Sadłowski.

From 1908 the restoration of the cathedral was headed by Tadeusz Obmiński. In subsequent years the roof was reconstructed, the copper roofing was replaced, new metal screw stairs leading to the attic were arranged to replace the old wooden ones, etc. Instead of replacing the old presbitery roof structure with a new one, the architect insisted on the preservation and restoration of the existing structure (Obmiński, 1932, 302).

In 1916, during the First World War, the copper roofing of the cathedral, as well as that of other buildings in Lviv, was commandeered by the Austrian army, so in 1920 the roof was restored again. In 1923-1930 the floor was reconstructed. The crypts were connected into a system and equipped with ventilation which finally eliminated the long-standing problem of the unpleasant odor. Also, Gothic portals were uncovered on the north and south façades, as well as authentic tracery and loopholes on the tower, previously hidden under layers of plaster. After the death of Tadeusz Obmiński in 1932 the restoration stopped. There were ambitious plans for its continuation and for establishing a monument to King Casimir III on the Katedralna square, but because of the beginning of the Second World War they were not implemented (Smirnow, 2001, 106).

During the war the cathedral survived, only stained-glass windows on the west and south façades were partially damaged. In 1946 some of the most valuable relics were taken away from the cathedral.

In the Soviet period the cathedral was one of the three functioning churches in Lviv. In 1952 its façades were renovated and, later, the chapels. In 1975-1988 Anatol Chobitko, a Ukrainian artist, worked on the restoration of paintings (Smirnow, 2001,108).

Since 1998 various repairs have been carried out jointly by the Ukrainians and Poles. Today the church is an important architectural monument of the medieval city, a place of pilgrimage. Divine service is celebrated there in Ukrainian and Polish.