Vul. Lesi Ukrainky, 12 – residential building

The houses of this part of the Armenian quarter were for the first time shown in a plan drawn by Martin Gruneweg in the late sixteenth century or in the early seventeenth century. In the place of the contemporary house number 12 he designated a covered stoop with an opening (das offene) in the middle where probably an oven was situated. In the place of the modern yard, there was a wooden house where one could find a kitchen with a fireplace and a separate room situated more deeply inside. The next big brick building, which was located in the place of the contemporary western wing of the Mons Pius café bar, was the property of the same owner, a Mr Jacob. There was an overstory above it, apparently made of wood. Between the wooden and stone parts of the housing there were stairs leading down to the cellar.

When Wardan Hunanian, a priest, became the Armenian Catholic bishop in 1675, he claimed that the Magistrate should allot the plots situated to the north from the cathedral to the Church. So the territory, which now coincides with the houses number 10, 12, and 14 on Lesi Ukrainky street, passed into possession of the Armenian clergy. Stone buildings were constructed on these plots in the late seventeenth century. In the 1767 tax registry, the housing number 131, which coincides with the houses number 12 and 14, is designated as the Armenian vicar’s residence.

In a 1844 Lviv plan and a 1849 cadastral map, the house is designated as a separate one, not connected with the plot number 14. It is known that it was owned by Heinrich Schmidt in 1858. The contemporary appearance of the house with an interior yard fenced with a wall took its shape in the nineteenth century. The wall was built anew in 1884. At that time the house number 12, as well as the neighbouring ones, was registered as belonging to the chapter. In a 1932 plan the both buildings facing Virmensky lane (the second one was the contemporary western wing of the Mons Pius café bar) are designated as a single complex at the address of Skarbkivska (Lesi Ukrainky) street 12. All the housing, including the house number 14, had then the conscription number 108 and was the property of the Armenian Catholic Church. After the Second World War the both buildings passed to the possession of the city. Restoration workshops were arranged in the house where the Mons Pius bank pawn shop had been located; the house facing Lesi Ukrainky street has remained residential.