Church of Sts. Peter and Paul, Lviv

Saints Peter and Paul Church stands at the crossroads of Lychakivska and Mechnikova Streets, on the site of what was once Lviv’s Lychakivsky outer district. Its origins reach back to 1668, when a small roadside chapel marked this eastern approach to the city. Over the following centuries, the building evolved through several reconstructions, most notably in the mid-eighteenth century when it became a Roman Catholic church of the Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit. The most significant changes came in 1798 under architect K. Fesinger, who redesigned the structure, added a presbytery and erected a bell tower, giving the church much of its present appearance. A later restoration in 1887 completed its architectural profile.

The church blends Baroque and Classicism, a mix visible in both its decorative forms and the more restrained lines of its bell tower. Built of stone and oriented with its apse to the west, it has a single nave, vaulted ceilings and a gable roof. Baroque pediments emphasise the altar section, while the façade is divided into tiers with belt courses and framed by pilasters. Semicircular window niches soften the structure’s vertical rhythm, and two nineteenth-century sculptures of the Apostles Peter and Paul stand before the entrance, reinforcing the building’s identity.

Inside, visitors find details that reflect the church’s layered history. An eighteenth-century pulpit and an iconostasis from 1862 remain key features of the interior, complemented by paintings created in the 1920s by artists who had emigrated from Eastern Ukraine. Together, these elements give the church a distinctive character that invites close attention and rewards unhurried exploration.