Vul. Virmenska, 14 – residential building

17^th c. – a two-storied townhouse with a low second floor is built.
Late 18^th c. – the two-storied townhouse is reconstructed as a three-storied one.
1869 – the fourth floor is added by architect Józef Miesel.
1910 – all the building’s ground floor premises are adapted for shops with separate entrances.
1911 – the staircase is reconstructed with the use of reinforced concrete (constructor Jan Ostrowski); balconies with entrances to the apartments are arranged on the east courtyard façade.
1935 – a reconstruction of the townhouse is made, its living conditions being improved; some partitions are built (architect Salomon Keil).
1950 – capital repairs are done; the ground floor premises used for shops are adapted for housing, the doors leading to the shops are rearranged as windows, the socle is faced with ceramic tiles.

The house is located in the dense housing of Virmenska street. This street was laid out simultaneously with the formation of the medieval city within its defensive walls and was inhabited by Armenians who arrived in Lviv during the reign of prince Lev Danylovych. This is one of the longest streets in the city’s historic center. It started from Krakivska street and came up against the Dominican monastery walls, having no free exit. The first mention of the Armenian quarter dates back to 1394. The names of Armenian families were fixed in the nicknames of the townhouses. The earliest archival mention of townhouse 14 on Virmenska street comes from 1638 when it was called “that of the Saakowiczs”, from the name of its owner, Saak Wartanowicz. In the schoss books (schossbücher) and court papers this townhouse is referred to as Wartanowiczowska (1639-1659, 1705-1740) and “that of Krzysztof Wartanowicz” (1660-1704). In the 1767 tax book it is designated as Bernatovychivska (Bernatowiczowska).

The present building is the result of several construction periods. The old townhouse was built in the 17^th c. and, according to 1712 archival documents, had a very small second floor, that is, it was a two-storied house with a low second floor. In the second half of the 18^th c. it was considerably rebuilt. The old townhouse had a two-part and two-tract structure; after the reconstruction it had three parts and three tracts. There were various people among the house residents; in the second half of the 18^th c. it was in this house that a famous Lviv sculptor Antoni Osiński and architect Piotr Połejowski lived (the latter till the construction of his own house across the street, on Virmenska 13). However, the townhouse belonged to the Armenian Brotherhood of St. Gregory the Illuminator. Till 1765 it was owned by merchants and pharmacists of the Brotherhood – Antoni Głuszkiewicz, Piotr Bogdanowicz and Stefan Augustynowicz. The latter sold the Bernatowiczowska townhouse to Mateusz Miller, an artist, and his wife Rozalia Osińska, who was the sister of architect Połejowski, for eight thousand guldens. In 1774 Miller moved from there to the Dawidowiczowska townhouse located on Virmenska street 33. After the death of Rozalia Osińska (1793), her daughter Zofia Kempska along with her sister Katarzyna Ratyńska sold the townhouse to their brother Martin Osiński. It was probably Martin Osiński who considerably rebuilt the house adding the third floor to it. In 1840 the house became the property of Denys Zubrytsky, a Ukrainian historian. Zubrytsky’s daughter, Stanislava, who lived in Krakow, bequeathed the townhouse to the Lviv Greek Catholic Chapter on condition that the income from it would be used for education of girls. Zubrytsky’s book collection was made over to historian Anton Petrushevych.

The archival building records of the Bernatowiczowska townhouse start in 1866 (DALO 2/1/192). According to the documents, the house was not in a proper condition at that time; in particular, its crowning cornice was to be repaired. Since it was planned to arrange shops in the ground floor premises, in 1867 permission was given to reconstruct a ground floor window as a door. In 1869 Stanislava Zubrytska had the fourth floor added to the house under a project designed in 1868 by architect Josef Miesel. The reconstructed townhouse was covered with a roof, considerably lower than the previous fractured shingle one. The entrance was constructed on the extreme right axis. In 1900 a shop was arranged in the ground floor premises; that is why another window was reconstructed as a door. The then owner of the building, Aniela Felińska, pressed the Magistrate for the change of the façade’s unaesthetic colour. In 1910 the townhouse became owned by Mendel Hersch Schapiro, a Jew, who arranged shops with separate entrances in all the three ground floor premises as well as warehouses in the cellars. In the course of the adaptation works Schapiro was ordered by the Grono Konserwatorskie to preserve vaults in the cellars. In 1911 Jan Ostrowski, a builder, reconstructed the staircase, using metal structures. It was then that balconies with entrances to the apartments were arranged on the east courtyard façade. In 1935 the townhouse was reconstructed under a project designed by architect Salomon Keil. The building’s layout was changed as some partitions were built. In the Soviet period capital repairs were done; the ground floor premises used for shops were adapted for housing, the doors leading to the shops were rearranged as windows, the socle was faced with ceramic tiles.