Vul. Lychakivska, 35 - Lviv specialized Maria Pokrova comprehensive boarding school

Lviv specialized Maria Pokrova school, formerly the Galician institution for the deaf-and-dumb, is located on vul. Lychakivska, previously known as the Hlynianska Road. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Wiśniowiecki palace was located on its place; it is marked on a 1770 map. The large area and shape of this plot have remained virtually unchanged since then.

The founder of the Galician institution for the deaf-and-dumb was a benefactor, Austrian bishop Jan Michal Leonhard, who, not desiring to make a show of himself, acted under the pseudonym Franz Goldheim. He donated 16,000 florins to orphans and children deprived of hearing. The Lviv authorities used the money to build a separate house. Therefore, in August 1828, the Governor's office issued an appeal to the Starosta offices for the construction of a school with a call to raise funds in their localities. Private individuals were among the donors, in particular, provincial councilor Alfred Potocki, the Lviv chapter bishop, Fr. Jakób Bem. The provincial Sejm allocated 1,000 florins of annual subventions for the needs of the Institution.

On October 4, 1830, the first school for the deaf-and-dumb, located in a residential building, was opened in Lviv. At that time, there were 41,861 florins in the charity fund for the construction of the building for the Institution. With the help of the then governor of Galicia, Archduke Ferdinand d’Este, in 1833 the school purchased a house on ul. Na Rurach (on the site of the modern townhouse at vul. Konyskoho 11a) for 5,860 florins.

In June 1840, the construction of a new school building began, a large plot of land with a complicated relief was purchased on vul. Lychakivska. It had belonged to the Wiśniowiecki magnate family; until 1840 their palace was located there. Funds for a building for the deaf-and-dumb were collected throughout Galicia. The project was designed by Alois Wandruschka, an architect of Czech origin. This project is stored in the Central State Historical Archiveof Ukraine in Lviv. According to it, the building was to be H-shaped in plan. The school was built, however, according to a different project designed by Florian Onderka. The plan of the building was U-shaped. The new building of the Holy Trinity Institution for the deaf-and-dumb was opened on September 26, 1841.

 

The building was intended for 60 students. It was surrounded by a park designed by Karl Bauer, a gardener at the Lviv University. The park served several functions. It was decorative on the front side facing vul. Lychakivska where the main entrance was located, which looked like a regular park. An area was provided for learning  gardening. Another part had ententertaining function, being a place of rest, entertainment, fun and gymnastics. Later, the garden and vegetable garden were turned into a park.

The purpose of the Institution was the education and training of deaf-and-dumb children, teaching them the customs and traditions of the Roman Catholic faith. The institution accepted those deaf-and-dumb children who had all the necessary vaccinations and reached the age of eight but were not older than thirteen years. In the first year of the institution's operation, ten students studied there; in the late nineteenth century the number grew to one hundred. By 1894, 635 students graduated from the school.

The Galician Holy Trinity Institution for the deaf-and-dumb was administered by the Governor's office, which regulated the conditions of admission, the program of education and upbringing of students. The first protector of the institution was Prince August-Longin von Lobkowitz, the Austrian governor of Galicia in 1826-1832. The management of the institution, according to the foundation act issued by the governor, consisted of the canon director of the Lviv chapter and representatives of the Governor's office and the Magistrate. Some children were admitted free of charge. The local archbishop supervised the education and upbringing of the children. In addition, a doctor and a dentist worked in the institution.

Due to the beginning of the November uprising in 1831, it was not possible to invite Warsaw specialists to the Lviv Institution. The school was headed by Dominik Vychytil (Wichitil), who had previously been a teacher of deaf-and-dumb children in Prague. He was assigned a salary of 500 florins a year and was entitled to a state pension. The children were taught in German at school, as the library consisted of German books at that time. After 1856, it switched to Polish language of instruction.

The school was maintained due to subventions from the state and from the city and county councils, as well as several private charitable foundations. Wealthy residents of the region also donated to the school. During his visit to Lviv in 1851, Emperor Franz Joseph I praised the Institution.

In 1875, the Institution was significantly reorganized through cooperation with the Warsaw Institute for the deaf-and-dumb. The Lviv school was given the opportunity to send its employees to study in Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Dresden, Poznań and Wroclaw; as a result, new didactic methods were introduced. The children were taught the basics of shoemaking and tailoring. The girls, in particular, were taught to work on a sewing machine and to knit.

Periodic reformation of the institution as well as the maintenance of the premises entailed large expenditures. In particular, in 1873 the then director of the Institution, Tomaš Chocholoušek, appealed to the magistrate about the renewal of the roof, which was actually repaired in 1875. In 1878, the Galician Provincial Sejm increased the annual subvention to 6,000 guldens. However, this money was not enough, as the Institution required major repairs. The first stage of works was carried out in 1880-1881. Then, at the expense of the governor's office, the kitchen was repaired and the roof was replaced with a fireproof one, the eaves raised. These works were supervised by Zygmunt Kędzierski, a Lviv constructor. In memory of the building renovation in 1880, a black marble table with an engraving in gold Latin letters reading "AEDIFICIUM RENOVATIUM / ANNO SALUTIS MDCCCLXXX" was placed on the main façade above the entrance.

In 1883 the Institution was provided with machines for educational needs. The educational program was coordinated between Warsaw and Lviv institutions. In particular, methodical courses for learning the language for the deaf-and-dumb, developed by the director of the Galician Institution Antoni Mejbaum (d. 1916), were used in Warsaw until 1896.

Around 1880, the Jewish Bardach Institution for the deaf-and-dumb was opened in Lviv; the institution on Lychakivska Street was inaccessible for the Jews.

In 1893, the building of the Institution for the deaf-and-dumb was expanded with the addition of two wings in the rear. The construction was carried out by the famous Ukrainian architect Ivan Levynsky (Jan Lewiński). At that time the director of the Institution was Fr. Andrzej Mazurak.

As of the late nineteenth century, there were 120 children and no vacant places in the school. So, in 1899 a third floor was added to the school’s main block; in 1902 the wings were also raised by one floor. The works were carried out according to a project and under the direction of constructor Alfred Kamienobrodzki. At that time, the director of the school was Zenon Lubomirski.

 

During the First World War, the institution housed a hospital, first a Russian one (1914-1915) and later an Austrian one. During the war (in 1915-1917) the director of the institution was Fr. Wilhelm Wagner, a Roman Catholic priest, who renovated the building and restored the school functioning. In 1915, a hospital for the Austrian military was located on the building’s ground floor and a dormitory for children on the second floor; the school itself, where 24 students studied, occupied the third floor. In 1918, due to the Polish-Ukrainian war and the Spanish flu epidemic, the school was closed.

For the academic year 1919/1920, 84 students were admitted, there was a lack of funding. On February 4, 1920, the Sejm approved the budget and resumed paying teachers' salaries, thus improving the situation. In 1921, architect Alfred Kamienobrodzki designed a project to repair the eastern wing of the school and erected a single-storey warehouse.

As of 1930, the institution had 17 teachers and 142 children. From 1924, Mieczysław Kępa, who had studied in Warsaw, worked as a teacher at the school. He managed to invent a hearing aid that was used by 30% of deaf children. However, this device did not become widespread in the then Poland.

In 1935, the slope was fortified with a stone retaining wall on the rear side of the building, and a solid chicken coop was built in the line with the retaining wall. The work was performed by Alfred Kamienobrodzki.

In 1941, during the Nazi occupation, the institution for the deaf-and-dumb was evacuated to Hrebeniv in the Skoliv district, where most of the children stayed in a local sanatorium, while the older and stronger ones worked at a sawmill or tended sheep. During the German occupation the school in Lviv was closed and reorganized by the occupation authorities into a hotel for the military. In 1944, the school resumed its work as a Soviet institution. It was renamed the Specialized Boarding School for deaf-and-dumb children no. 101 and now worked according to the Soviet educational standards.

Since 1991, thanks to connections with foreign colleagues, the educational process has improved, the school has been rebuilt and reconstructed as well as supported by technical means. Peter Spikers, a patron, helped establish cooperation with the St. Michael's Institution in the Netherlands. The Lviv school is a member of the Ukrainian-Canadian Alliance for the Development of Hearing-Impaired Children. With the help of Canadian colleagues, the Center for the Promotion of the Hearing-Impaired Persons Education was established at the school, which aims to bring together scientists and educational institutions, public organizations of the two countries, and to exchange experiences.

Today the institution operates as the Lviv specialized Maria Pokrova boarding school (I-III degrees) for deaf children. As of 2019, there were 56 students with hearing impairments there. The boarding school also provides psychological correctional and developmental rehabilitation. There is an Information Center for Early Intervention and Family Support of a Child with Hearing Impairment and a preschool group for children with hearing loss.

Due to works carried out in 2007-2009, the woodwork of all windows and doors was replaced with double-glazed panes; also, the façades were decorated. In 2018, the building’s western wing was repaired, as were the bathrooms in 2019.