The exhibition “The Armenian Cathedral in Lviv and its Creators” was presented in the old Armenian church, which forms part of the State Historical and Architectural Reserve in Brzeżany, Ukraine. The opening was accompanied by a musical performance by a women’s chamber choir. The exhibition takes the form of display panels and spatial reconstructions, and is also accompanied by multimedia materials. It is further supplemented by information explaining the historical and cultural context relating to the Armenians of Lviv and the development of multicultural Lviv. The exhibition is further enriched by photographs of murals by Jan Henryk Rosen and works by Franciszek Mączyński and Józef Mehoffer.
The organisers and creators of the exhibition on the Polish side are the International Cultural Centre in Kraków and The POLONIKA National Institute of Polish Cultural Heritage. The exhibition is curated by Dr Michał Wiśniewski from the Educational Department – Heritage Academy at the International Cultural Centre. On the Ukrainian side, the co-organisers are: the non-governmental organisation Centre for Research and Protection of Cultural Heritage, the “Ancient Dvingorod” Reserve, the religious community of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Ternopil, the non-governmental organisation “Ternopil Armenian Community”, and the State Historical and Architectural Reserve in Brzeżany.
Exhibition organised by the ICC
The exhibition “The Armenian Cathedral in Lviv and its Creators” was created on the initiative of members of the Association of Graduates of the Academy of Heritage (a postgraduate programme coordinated by the ICC and the Krakow University of Economics since 2001), which is committed to the protection of Polish heritage abroad. The conservation of Jan Henryk Rosen’s wall paintings was one of the Association’s most important projects, carried out on the initiative of its president, Paweł Baranowski, in collaboration with the National Institute of Polish Cultural Heritage Abroad (POLONIKA), with whom the current version of the exhibition was prepared, and with the support of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. In March 2026, the exhibition was also presented at St Sophia’s Cathedral in Kyiv, at the “Chilibnia” Gallery, and in May an exhibition on the Armenian Cathedral was shown at the Potocki Palace in Ivano-Frankivsk.
“The Armenian Cathedral in Lviv and its Creators” – spatial reconstructions and multimedia
Following the completion of conservation work in the nave of the cathedral in 2015, the ICC team decided to jointly organise a presentation of the results. The concept for the exhibition was developed by ICC staff members Dr Michał Wiśniewski and Ewa Wojtoń, who invited Dr Joanna Wolańska, author of an academic study on the cathedral and an expert on the architectural history of Lviv, Dr Żanna Komar, and Paweł Baranowski, who led the conservation work at the cathedral, to collaborate on the project.
The exhibition “The Armenian Cathedral in Lviv and its Creators” is presented in Ukraine in Ukrainian and English. The exhibition has already been shown at 23 venues in Poland and abroad. It is accompanied by the latest edition of the album of the same title.
More about the exhibition “The Armenian Cathedral in Lviv and its Creators”
photo: P. Mazur