LVIV CATACOMBS REVEAL ANOTHER MYSTERY

Construction of the cathedral began in 1610 and was completed in 1630 by architect Sebastian Lamchius. It is the city's oldest cathedral and it can accommodate 3,500 adherents. Foreign historians claim that stone architecture in Lviv dates from the time the city was conquered by Polish King Casimir. As for the plot occupied by the cathedral (30 meters from the river Plotva) it was allegedly marshland with wild ducks. Presently, it has been established that the Jesuit architect used white stone structures that had been here previously as the foundation.

A short way from the entrance to the cathedral, Mykola Bandrivsky unearthed a "niche" down which earth seemed to "flow". Its depth could not be measured, but it was apparent that some kind of structure was somewhere underneath. Again, they could not explore it, because there was nowhere to put the earth they would dig up. We walked down a corridor and after a dozen meters approached a narrow crack in the wall through which we had to squeeze to reach the excavation site. The crack had been made by robbers to get to the graves inside the cathedral. Their titanic work wos not rewarded. By then all the graves had been removed.

For the archaeologists, too, the place was a real terra incognita; they had no charts and no way of knowing what had been in place of the cathedral. Now they had un earthed a whole block of Lviv of the princely period, which experts dated to the 13th century, a period when Prince Lev was every actively in construction. Among other things, they found an arch with brickwork of remarkable precision and an almaria (a niche in which weapons were stored). These and several other discoveries led Bandrivsky to the conclusion that the premises must have belonged to a wealthy resident or that it had been a public building. He was overjoyed because the structure was pure gothic style, and only five or six other such buildings had survived the ravages of time. Gothic Lviv perished in the great fire of 1527.

In 1259, Burundai Khan ordered Prince Lev to tear down the city's fortified walls, but he refused. Instead, he reinforced them, so that in the 1287 siege Telebuga Khan could not take Lviv and had to direct his troops to Sandomir, a Polish city considered well fortified, but which he seized in the first attack.

Mykola Bandrivsky stresses that the annals point not to the walls of High Castle (Vysoky Zamok), but those of Lviv. On that same excavation site the archaeologists discovered items belonging to the Vysotska culture. In other words, they now had material evidence that human settlements had existed here in twelfth to eighth centuries BC. Similar evidence was found nearby, close to the former Troyanda shop. In fact, Bandrivsky agrees with the theory that Lviv was not built in an empty place, and it had been preceded by several settlements which Prince Danylo of Halych united into a single town and named for his son Lev.

Mykola Bandrivsky believes that excavations have so far embraced not more than one-fifth of what is still to be discovered. Likewise, he is convinced that the Jesuit cathedral has not disclosed many of its mysteries. It is quite possible that the archaeologists will find secret Jesuit dungeons where they held trials of heretics and other malefactors. At present, excavations are impeded by lack of funds. Besides, Bandrivsky has only four assistants, students from the Ivan Franko University and Lviv Polytechnic Institute Bohdan Krushelnytsky, Nazar Vertykushch, Pavlo Senatorov, and Roman Kybalchych who come to work after classes. Dirt piles surrounding the excavation site are another obstacle, because the crack in the walls allows through only bucketfuls of earth. Add here problems with the Greek Catholic hierarchy, as St. Basil's Monastic Order claims possession of the cathedral. In this sense not only excavation work, but also three million rare books are at issue. These books belong to the Vasyl Stefanyk Library but are stored at the cathedral. The cloistered order has always emphasized its literacy and dedication to the cause of preserving Ukrainian culture, so one can only hope that the learned brotherhood will not act like the former Jesuit owners of this House of God.

However, even assuming that the cathedral's catacombs have not as yet revealed all their secrets, Mykola Bandrivsky's trophies suffice for an archaeology museum in Lviv. Now everything depends on the "city fathers" who are trying (quite effectively, it should be noted) to have Lviv entered in the UNESCO world cultural heritage lists.

Photo by Leonid Bakka, The Day