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The Our Lady of the Sign Church of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns is one of the most beautiful monuments of the Lviv Baroque of the first half of the 17th century

The square in front of the church, situated on one of thehills of Lviv, opens ontoapanorama of the city. The church of the Carmelite Order, similarly to the JesuitChurch in Lviv, resembles the Church of the Gesù in Rome designed by Italian architect da Vignola.

The church in Lviv was designed by Giovanni Battista Gisleni, an architect at the court of two kings of Rzeczpospolita: Wladyslaw IV and his brother Jan Kazimierz. A plaque attached to the entrance portal confirms the dates of construction of the Baroque church(1642-1644). Golden Latin letters name the benefactor of the church – the father of the Polish king Jan  Sobieski, Jacob. There are also coats of arms of the Polish royal families of Sobieski and Danilowiczi. The son, continuing his father’s work, finished and decorated the church at his own cost in 1692.

The portal niches were adorned with stone vases and figures of the founders of the Carmelite Order, Sts. John andTeresa, by the royal sculptor Andrzej Schwaner.

Upon abolition of the Order of the Carmelites in Lviv, the monasteryhoused the Theological Seminary of the Latin Archdiocese. The palace of the Latin archbishops, adjacent to the church, was not used according to its original purposein the totalitarian period; its renovation was dedicated to the visit of Pope John Paul II to Lviv in June 2001.

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