+Sacra Cracovia+

July 3rd, 2006

While I was at the Greek Catholic Cathedral, I was able to visit the tombs of their patriarchs, whose tombs are in the crypt under the main altar. There lies Cardinal Szeptycki, whom I later learned is seen as a national and religious hero. It was he who was responsible for strengthening the position of the Eastern Church in the early 20th century, and who founded the Lviv Theological Academy, which is now the Ukrainian Catholic University.

On my way back from the cathedral, I was able to find a beautiful old Roman Catholic Church, the neo-gothic St. Elizabeth’s Church. Clearly neglected during the years of the USSR, the church has recently been re-opened, after the interior was gutted, and serves as an Eastern Catholic Church. It is very interesting to see an iconostasis and Eastern Catholic interior furnishings within the long, gothic nave. This, of course, was the first of many old Roman Catholic churches that I would visit, which since the end of the Soviet Union, have been returned by the government to the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

The afternoon was filled with another adventure. I decided to go to find the Ukrainian Catholic University, on “Sventitskoho 17a,” which I later figured out translated into Polish as, “Świencickiego.” The whole time I was in Lwów, it was fun to read the names of streets on my Polish map, and then try to decipher what the heck they were in Ukrainian—all of the street signs are in Cyrillic. I decided to walk towards the university, which is located about twenty minutes on foot away from downtown. It is a nice stroll that takes one down Iwana Franka street, one of the main boulevards going south from the center of the city. On the way, I passed by a local market, and decided to step inside—in order to get an experience of the real life of the local people. What I saw absolutely shocked me, though it was not completely foreign. I was greeted by the smell of raw meat, which was displayed on large blood-soaked pieces of cardboard. The sun-soaked raw meat was also covered with flies, which must have been enjoying the pig intestines, pig’s head that was chopped in half, as well as the cow liver that I saw (from which people could slice off pieces according to the desired size). Next to the meat section of the market, I saw piles of various fruits and vegetables—from pineapples to black currants, which were all sold for incredible prices. I am not sure how the local people can afford to eat fruit or vegetables, which are very expensive. Perhaps that is why it seems that there is not much to choose from in this area in the restaurants. The market brought back memories of Poland in the early 1990’s, combined with recollections of pictures that I had seen in National Geographic magazines, of street markets in developing countries. Here, I could buy laundry detergent, a pig’s brain, and bananas—all in one spot!

Having seen enough of the market, I worked my way towards the university, which, although the address is on Sventitskoho, was actually not located on this street, but on the one parallel to it. I was going to the university to see if I could meet up with some friends of mine, who would be teaching at the Ukrainian Catholic University’s Summer School of English. All of this seemed a little surreal to me—here I was in Lwów, with the possibility of meeting a Notre Dame friend, whom I had not seen for about a year. It really made me aware of how small our world is really becoming. Although I could not meet him then, I finally found out over a telephone with one of the organizers of the school, that my friend would be coming the next day…so off I went, back to the city. I decided that I would surprise him and meet him at the airport, where he wouldn’t expect me at all.

Upon returning to the city, I visited the Lwów Opera, one of the most famous opera houses in Central Europe, and known especially at the time it was built as a cultural gem. The opera house itself is not that old—it dates to the late nineteenth century, when it was built by the Austrians, who were in charge of the city at the time, as it was the capital of the Independent State of Galicia, an Austrian puppet state carved out of the Habsburg part of the Polish partition. Although what is supposedly the world’s most beautiful theater curtain was pulled up, I did get to see the rest of the interior. The seating hall with levels of balconies is simply breathtaking, and is complete with wonderful private viewing booths, which surely served many a wealthy city aristocrats of the era. The hall of mirrors, which is located at the top of the colorful marble and wooden grand staircase, is painted with images of the Muses and other mythical figures, which adorn the ceiling and look down upon the bronze busts of famous local actors.

The day ended with strolling through the narrow (and dirty) city streets, where I visited many Orthodox Churches, and was awed by the beauty of the Baroque Eastern Catholic Churches. One of the most amazing churches that I visited was the Church of the Holy Eucharist, the former Dominican Church in Lwów, which was attached to what was once the largest Dominican Abbey in this part of Europe. Unfortunately, with the coming of the Soviets and the Germans, most of the Poles were either deported from the city into Siberia or fled to the western parts of Poland. This dramatic Polish depopulation, of course, ended up in the “de-Romanization” of the city, because most of the Poles were Roman Catholic. With the departure of the Poles, the Roman Catholic orders left as well, and left behind them their churches—silent witnesses to a sad and dramatic history. During the communist times, of course, most of these churches were desecrated and destroyed (the Carmelite Sisters’ church was changed into a basketball gym). Currently, the government is returning the churches to the Catholic Church, however, only to the Ukrainian Church. Thus, the former Carmelite Church is now the church of St. Michael the Archangel, and is run by the Studite Monks. The Bernardine (Franciscan) Church is now run by the Order of St. Basil the Great. The Jesuit church is closed to this day, although it was just officially given to the Ukrainian Church. St. Mary Magdalene’s Church functions to this day as the local symphony hall. It will surely be a long process before all of the church buildings are returned to the Catholics.

After a long day out in the city, I returned back to my lodging, just in time to make it before the city water is shut off in the evenings at 9:00 p.m. Of course, then I had to watch the quarterfinals of the World Cup.