CHURCH OF THE BIRTH OF THE VIRGIN MARY

Lviv, Ukraine

I had found a picture of this building on the internet, but with no identification. I searched all my browsers, and finally found it, but under its traditional name—The Intercession of Theolokos—but still with no detailed information. Even Wikipedia missed it. A resourceful front desk receptionist, Maria, used AI photo recognition to pin it, and gave me the address. It was in a suburb of town, so Uber did the rest. I was enamored by this more contemporary design, borrowing freely from the classics, with domes and silo towers, but organized in a way that the masters would never have imagined. The complexity of the intersecting shapes and masses required deft dimensional imagination. 3-D modeling programs used today would have improved the design process, but I doubt that it would have improved the quality of the work.

It was raining lightly on arrival, so I walked the grounds, and then entered the church, to find a service in progress. There were no pews; congregants stood with the minister delivering the traditional service, with chanting, bell waving, and some singing. I got the sketch started from the street in front of the building, but as the rain continued, I retired to a café across the street to continue the work. Interestingly, in my earlier research images of the building, all of the domes on the building were painted a vibrant blue. On my visit, the domes were a tern color. I liked the blue domes, and want to learn why the change was made.