Church of Sts. Olha and Elizabeth, Lviv

The Church of Sts. Olha and Elizabeth is a Catholic church located in Lviv, Ukraine between the city's main rail station and the Old Town. It was originally built as a Western Catholic church and today serves as a Ukrainian Greek Catholic church.

The church was built by the Latin Archbishop of Lviv, Saint Joseph Bilczewski in the years 1903-1911 as a parish church for the city's dynamically developing western suburb. It was designed by Polish architect Teodor Talowski,^[1] in the neo-Gothic style, similar to that of the Votive Church in Vienna. St. Elisabeth's, placed on a hill which is the watershed of the Baltic and Black Sea, with its facade flanked by two tall towers and an 85 m belfry on the north side with imposing spires was envisioned as Lviv's first landmark to greet visitors arriving in the city by train.

In 1939, the church was damaged in a bombing raid but remained open until 1946. After the war, the building was used as a warehouse^[2] and fell further into ruin, until it was returned to faithful with the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1991, a Ukrainian Greek Catholic church was established and the church was reconsecrated as the Church of Sts. Olha and Elizabeth.

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References

^ A. Olszewski, An outline history of Polish 20th century art and architecture, Interpress Publishers, 1989, p. 23
^ L. Galusek, Reconstructing a Shattered Mosaic: The Common Heritage of Poland and Ukraine, Centropa: a journal of central European architecture and related arts, vol. 7, 2007, p. 107