Vul. Khmelnytskoho, 036 – the bell tower of St. Onuphrius Church

May-October of 1820 – the belfry is constructed by architect Franz Trescher Jr.; artistic decoration: an icon of Jesus Christ on the façade is painted by Luka Dolynsky using the al fresco technique; the cross is gilded.
1821 – icons of SS. Basil, Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves, and Josaphat are painted on the tower (painter Luka Dolynsky).
1855 – the paintings on the façade are renewed.
1946 – the monastery is abolished; the belfry stops functioning.
1989 – the monastery is restituted to the Basilian fathers.
1990s – repair and restoring works are conducted; the premises of the belfry are adapted to serve as a Plast domivka (Ukrainian scouts station); the rustication on the façades is plastered.
2001 – stairs from the street are made.


The St. Onuphrius monastery in Lviv is one of the oldest in Ukraine. Its founding is dated to the thirteenth century and is associated with the name of Lev Danylovych, or Leo I of Galicia. The first documented records concerning the St. Onuphrius monastery are dated only to the second half of the fifteenth century, but there were no written records about the belfry till the mid-seventeenth century. The first archival records concerning it are dated to 1654. In May of that year Matviy Fedorovych, “the one in charge of the church”, entered the following information in the expenses of the Lviv Stauropegian Brotherhood: “100 gold coins have been given to the masons constructing the belfry in the St. Onuphrius monastery”. At first the belfry had one tier; in 1681 a wooden tier was added to the stone one, and the structure consisted of a stone lower tier and a wooden upper tier till the early nineteenth century. The then belfry had a through passage like the current one as it had a gate and was located at the bypass wall, slightly shifted to the north from the axis of the main entrance to the church.

In 1815 a reconstruction of the monastery cells and of the church was carried out. All the works were designed and conducted by architect Franz Trescher Jr. After the monastery building had been finished, the construction of a belfry tower was started, the project being drawn up by the same architect and constructor, Franz Trescher Jr. The old belfry was dismantled in April of 1820. The construction of the belfry tower was started under the father superior Arseniy Radkevych and completed under his successor, Modest Hrynevetsky. Double-flight masonry stairs from the street were constructed simultaneously with the belfry. Archival documents tell us the names of the artisans working at the construction: Panteleimon Sias, a bricklayer’s mate, who, as a constructor, lifted and mounted the cross on the top of the tower all by himself, according to an old tradition; metalworker Kristof Riedl, who made a metal balcony on the last tier of the tower; tinsmith Tomasz Niedzwiedzki, who bound the top of the tower with white tin. In the early October of 1820 the belfry tower was entirely completed. At the same time an artistic decoration of the tower was started. An icon of Jesus Christ on the façade facing the street was painted by Luka Dolynsky using the al fresco technique. He also gilded the cross. Icons of SS. Basil, Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves, and Josaphat were also painted on the tower by Dolynsky in the summer of the following year.

 The paintings of Luka Dolynsky on the belfry (St. Basil the Great and the holy fathers on the sides) were renewed in 1855 due to the efforts of provincial Marian Maksymovych. Some paintings based on the sacred history subjects were made then on the church walls.
The St. Onuphrius monastery existed till 1946 when it was abolished by the Soviet authorities. The belfry stopped functioning. After 1977, when the monastery started to be used as a museum complex of the Lviv Picture Gallery, a changeable exposition was arranged on the second tier of the belfry. In 1989, when the monastery complex was restituted to the Basilian fathers, it was necessary to restore it. In the 1990s a series of repair and restoring works were conducted. Stairs from the street were made in 2001. The monastery library was arranged in the premises of the belfry on the second tier; a Plast domivka (Ukrainian scouts station) is situated on the third tier.

The belfry tower is an architectural monument of the Neo-Classicist style, an integral part of the Basilian St. Onuphrius monastery complex.