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Vul. Arkhitektorska – monument to Lviv Eaglets (does not exist)

ID: 104

The monument to the fallen participants of the 1918 battle for Lviv was installed near the main building of the Lviv Polytechnic in 1925. The authors of this project were architect Witold Wincenty Rawski, sculptors Józef Starzyński and Andrzej Albrycht. The monument was destroyed after 1950.

History

During the Polish-Ukrainian war, a military hospital functioned in the main building of the Polytechnic; dead participants were buried nearby. After the war, the bodies of those buried in a temporary cemetery were exhumed and transferred to the Cemetery of the Eaglets, located in the territory of the Lychakivskyi Cemetery.

In 1925, two monuments to the Eaglets were installed in Lviv. The first one was erected in September near the railway station "Persenkivka," where active hostilities took place in 1918. Near the Polytechnic, where a cross stood, the place for the monument was marked with a cornerstone on September 13 (Słowo Polskie, 1925, No. 158, s.7).

A specially created committee, headed by Leon Piniński, was responsible for installing the monument near the Polytechnic, with Z. Kamińska managing the fund raising. The authors of the monument were Polish Lvivites: it was designed by architect Witold Wincenty Rawski, made by sculptor Józef Starzyński with the cooperation of Professor Andrzej Albrycht.

The ceremonial opening took place on the anniversary of the battle, on 22 November 1925. As mentioned in the report published in the Słowo Polskie (Polish Word) newspaper, the following persons spoke at the ceremony: the president of the committee, the vice-president Leonard Stahl, the Polytechnic rector Dr. Jan Lopuszański, general Malczewski, the president of the Lviv Defenders Union colonel Goszowski. After the opening there was a procession and, on the same day, the "Cross of the Defense of Lviv" was opened on the façade of the Konarski school whose present-day address is vul. Bandery, 91 (Słowo Polskie, 1925, No. 322, s.6).

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Architecture

The seven-meter-high monument was made of white stone in the style of Art Deco (pol. styl kryształkowy) with the use of Neoclassicist elements. There was a pedestal on three steps, on one side of which the names of the buried were carved, while on the opposite side (from ul. Zachariewicza, now vul. Arkhitektorska) one could see a three-meter-high figure of an archangel with a sword, protecting the city gate. There was a carved frieze on the top part of the pedestal, crowned with sculptures of a mother eagle and two eaglets. According to the project, the monument was to be additionally surrounded by stone walls of the same height as the pedestal.

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Description

Territory of Lychakiv cemetery – Polish military cemetery

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