Vul. Pekarska, 55-59 – ensemble of the former Resurrectionist Congregation monastery

The plot where the complex of monastery buildings is situated (Pekarska street 55-59 in Lviv) corresponds to the old parcels under conscription numbers 6469-6470 on the 1849 cadastral plan of Lviv (CDIAL 186/8/829). Till 1874 there was a private orphanage there. Then the grounds were purchased by the Franciscan Order, with the aim to build a monastery for the nuns of the Most Holy Eucharist Congregation there. However, in a few years the nuns moved to the vicinities of Kurkova (now Lysenka) street. In 1880 the plots on Pekarska street were bought from the Franciscan nuns by the Congregation of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Congregatio a Resurrectione Domini Nostri Iesu Christi). This monastic order was founded in 1832 by Adam Mickiewicz and Bogdan Jański in Paris under the name of the United Brothers Society; from 1835 it was called the Brotherhood for National Service; in 1842 the order was given its present name. The Resurrectionist (Zmartwychwstańców) Congregation’s charter was adopted in 1860. The Congregation ‘s main objective was the introduction of Christian ethics and morals and the struggle against non-Christian behavior manifestations among young people. Walerian Kalinka, a famous Polish historian, joined this Congregation in 1868 and took monastic vows in 1870. It was he who applied efforts for the arrival of the Resurrectionist monks in Galicia.

The monastery complex construction was started in 1881 when the building of the Resurrectionist educational institution was constructed under Albin Zagórski’s project in the depth of the plot. The institution was also called “the boarding school for Ruthenian boys”. The Congregation saw their main task in fostering Western European values in Ukrainian boys. In the northern part of the building, a chapel was arranged. The building was built rather quickly and put into operation as early as 1882. In 1887 the wing overlooking Pekarska street was built under a project designed by the same architect, and in 1890, according to the 1888 plans, a church with a tower was constructed which became one of the vertical dominants of Pekarska street. On 7 July 1897 an extention to the south part of the boarding school building was completed, and the educational institution was given additional premises.  In the same year, the gate building was built under a project designed by Albin Zagórski, thus complementing the ensemble of buildings at the entrance to the courtyard from Pekarska street. In 1931 architect Wawrzyniec Dayczak designed a project of the reconstruction of the buildings; however, due to the crisis it was not implemented. Only the seminary building adjacent to the church on the north and west was reconstructed.

In 1945 the Resurrectionist monks were forced to leave Lviv. The boarding school building was given to a military hospital which was closed down in the 2010s. Since 1994, a Protestant church of Christ the Savior belonging to the Ukrainian Christian Mission of the Mercy Revival has functioned in the former Roman Catholic church; the other buildings have been transferred to the collective ownership of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).