Qualla: St. George's Cathedral, Lviv

St. George's Cathedral, Lviv: Introduction

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aeou, CC BY-SA 4.0. A young priest named Volodymyr Sterniuk hid in the cathedral loft in March 1946 and watched as the Synod of Lviv below him voted to dissolve the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and hand its parishes to the Russian Orthodox Church. The vote was coerced. The church hierarchy was already in prison. Sterniuk would spend the next four decades leading the banned church underground, and this building -- St. George's Cathedral, perched on its hill above Lviv -- would remain the symbol of what was taken and what was never truly surrendered.

Image: Aeou | CC BY-SA 4.0

St. George's Cathedral, Lviv: Three Churches, One Hill

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Мирослав Видрак, CC BY-SA 4.0. A church has occupied St. George's Hill since around 1280, when the area belonged to the Principality of Halych-Volhynia. That first wooden structure, along with the fortress surrounding it, was destroyed by King Casimir III of Poland in 1340. A Byzantine basilica replaced it, se...

Image: Мирослав Видрак | CC BY-SA 4.0

St. George's Cathedral, Lviv: Baroque Ambition on a Hilltop

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. The current cathedral was built between 1746 and 1762, commissioned by Metropolitan Athanasius Szeptycki and completed by his successor Leo Szeptycki. Its architect, Bernard Meretyn, designed a building that blends western baroque and rococo exuberance with Ukrainian ecclesiastic...

Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

St. George's Cathedral, Lviv: The Underground Church

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Haidamac, CC BY-SA 4.0. After World War II, the Soviet state set about destroying the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. In 1945, the newly ordained Archbishop of Lviv, Josyf Slipyj, was arrested along with the rest of the hierarchy. The 1946 Synod of Lviv -- held under duress and with no legitimate Catho...

Image: Haidamac | CC BY-SA 4.0

St. George's Cathedral, Lviv: Reclaimed in a Changed World

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Haidamac, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1989, amid perestroika, the Soviet government recognized the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The reclamation of St. George's followed swiftly. On August 12, 1990, members of the People's Movement of Ukraine occupied the cathedral. Two days later, the Lviv Oblast council uphel...

Image: Haidamac | CC BY-SA 4.0