Ancient paintings were discovered in the Lviv Museum of the History of Religions, located within the walls of a former Dominican monastery, which experts date to the late 16th - early 17th centuries. Restorer Lesya Hanulyak told ZAXID.NET.
According to the Polonika Institute, conservation and restoration work was carried out in the corridors of the former monastery in 2025. During the research, which began in 2023, the remains of rich wall paintings were discovered. The poor state of preservation and the risk of destruction during the planned renovation required urgent measures to preserve the valuable heritage.
Restorers cleaned one wall of the permanent exhibition hall, where they found fragments of a mural. The murals were hidden by more than 20 layers of later repainting and plaster. Two periods of painting were revealed: an older fresco layer from the late 16th century depicts horses, and the upper layer from the early 17th century is made in the glue technique and contains fragments of images of putti.
The restoration project, worth PLN 111,000 (nearly UAH 1.3 million), was funded by the Polish Ministry of Culture and carried out by the Artem Renovo company. Specialists cleaned the murals, strengthened the plaster and paint layer, and will continue conservation work in the new year.
As a reminder, the restoration of the former Dominican monastery on Museum Square in Lviv has been ongoing since 2020. Previously, the monastery refectory and chapel were already restored. The monastery building was erected in the 16th century on older structures, as evidenced by elements of Gothic architecture in the structure of the walls. In 1972, the monastery was adapted for a museum.
