Vul. Krakivska, 11 – former Pedianowska townhouse ID: 1036

The residential building (first half of the nineteenth century) is located at the corner of Krakivska and Virmenska streets. Known as the Pedianowska townhouse since the seventeenth century, there is no precise data regarding the exact time of its construction. However, the Empire-style decor allows the building to be dated to the first half of the nineteenth century.

Architecture

The building is a three-story, brick, plastered structure with an elongated plan and an inner courtyard. The interior layout is of the corridor type. The ground floor is adorned with linear rustication and pierced by windows with semi-circular heads. Below the second-floor windows, there are molded relief inserts featuring merchant symbols, created by one of Lviv's leading sculptors, Johann Schimser. On both sides of each insert are molded corbels decorated with acanthus leaves. The mercantile imagery of the inserts is narrative in character: The first insert (from the left) depicts a dolphin, a symbol of merchant prosperity. The second depicts Hermes, the god of trade, leaning on an anchor and blessing a ship with his caduceus. The third features a sailing ship loaded with goods. The fourth shows a merchant among various goods, including barrels, waterskins, and packages. The initials of the author, Johann Schimser, appear on the second insert (on either side of the anchor shaft) and on the fourth (on a cross-tied package). In terms of theme and execution, the relief inserts are analogous to the early eighteenth-century reliefs located on the building at vul. Ruska 8. The windows on the second and third floors are decorated with recessed panels, crowned at the top with linear pediments and supported at the bottom by brackets. The interior preserves stair railings from the first to the fourth floor, executed in the Art Deco style.

The building is a vibrant example of late Lviv Empire-style architecture.

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