Lviv on old postcards

Latin Cathedral.

It was built and rebuilt by Lviv city planners for 400 years. The first stone was laid by the Polish king Casimir the Great in 1360. After restoration in 1760-78. Gothic forms gave way to the then fashionable baroque ones. In the Cathedral there was an icon of the Merciful Mother of God ("The Beautiful Star of the City of Lvov"), the original of which is now kept in Wawel, Krakow. The main organ, stained-glass windows by J. Matejko and others have survived. In the eastern wall you can see the cannonballs reminiscent of the Turkish siege in 1672, as well as a shell left over from the Ukrainian-Polish war of 1918-19. Until the end of the 18th century. around the church there was a cemetery with numerous chapels, of which only the most valuable have survived: the Boim Chapel (1609-15) and the Campian Chapel (1619).