Brygidki

The prison building still has the appearance of a Mannerist cloister.

Brygidki is the building of a former Bridgettine nunnery in Lviv, Ukraine.

History

It was founded in 1614 at the behest of Anna Fastkowska and Anna Poradowska for girls from noble families. After the Partition of Poland the Austrian administration decided to secularise the convent. In 1784 the Brygidki building was turned into a prison, where death sentences would be carried out on a regular basis until the 1980s.

Taken over by the Soviet Union after Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, the prison was one of three sites of mass murder of political prisoners by NKVD in Ukraine in June 1941 as the Soviets were retreating before the Nazi German invasion. Approximately 7,000 prisoners - primarily Poles and Ukrainians - died in Lviv in that event.

Amongst those who perished on June 30, 1941, was Fr. Zynoviy Kovalyk, whom the NKVD arrested in December for the sermon he gave on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8). While they shot the rest of the prisoners, they decided to treat Fr. Kovalyk like his Lord by crucifying him in front of his fellow prisoners. When German troops had conquered Lviv, many people hastened to the prison in the hope of finding their relatives. According to witnesses, the most terrible sight was that of seeing the priest nailed to the prison wall. Even worse, someone had slit his belly open and placed a dead human fetus inside of it.

The prison courtyard still contains a Baroque chapel from the former convent. There are plans to shut down the infamous prison or to move it out of the city.

Notable prisoners

Lviv

History	Timeline Armenian Statute Dormition Brotherhood Jesuit Collegium First Siege by Cossacks Second Siege by Cossacks Lwów Oath Siege by Turks Leopolis Triplex Stauropegion Institute Stauropegion Press Ossolineum Galician Rada Halytsko-Ruska Matytsia Prosvita Ruthenian Triad Ruthenian National House Hutsul Secession Batiars Lwów Eaglets Battle 1918 Pogrom 1918 Battle 1920 Secret Ukrainian University Lwów–Warsaw school of logic Lwów School of Mathematics Battle 1939 Massacre of Lviv professors Lviv pogroms Lwów Ghetto Lwów Uprising Sknyliv air show disaster

Religion	Armenian Cathedral Cathedral of St. George Boim Chapel Bernardine Church Bridgettine Convent Carmelite Church Convent of Benedictines Church of St. Anne Church of John the Baptist Church of Mary of Snow Church of St. Elizabeth Church of St. Mary Magdalene Church of St. Onuphrius Church of the Dormition Church of the Purification, Lviv Church of the Transfiguration Dominican Church Jesuit Church Latin Cathedral

Attractions	Arena Lviv Arsenal Museum Bandinelli Palace Black Kamienica Catholic University Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów Forum Lviv Freedom Boulevard Government House King Cross Leopolis Korniakt Palace Lviv High Castle Lviv University Lychakivskiy Cemetery Market Square Mickiewicz Square National Museum Polytechnic University Lubomirski Palace Metropolitan Palace Old Town Pharmacy Museum Potocki Palace Sapieha Palace Scottish Café Shevchenkivskyi Hai Theatre of Opera and Ballet Skarbek Theatre Town Hall Ukraina Stadium Union of Lublin Mound

Transport	International Airport Tramway Lviv railway station Lviv Suburban railway station

Coordinates: 49°50′36″N 24°1′19″E / 49.84333°N 24.02194°E / 49.84333; 24.02194

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