The foundation of the Basilian monastery in Warsaw-Ujazdów (1768–1784) — the plans and their execution

Abstract

In 1768 the Seym passed a constitution that allowed the province of the Basilian order to build a monastery in Warsaw, which was also to run a public school teaching Greek and Old Church Slavonic. The monastery, the church and the school were to be built on a lot that belonged to King Stanislaus Augustus, located at the road to the Ujazdowski Palace. The Basilian province under the invocation of the Holy Protection of Mary was to facilitate the functioning of the future monastery by buying a landed estate worth 200.000 zloties. The organization of the enterprise was entrusted to the future head of the monastery, Father Metrofan Komarkiewicz. He started to gather funds by trade and planned to include the estates of other Basilian monasteries to the Warsaw monastery estate, which was disapproved of by his superiors. Financial diffi culties caused delay and the construction of the monastery was started only in the summer of 1776. It is assumed that one of the designers of the building was the King’s architect Dominic Merlini. Only the walls of the monastery had been completed by 1784, when the Basilians made an agreement with the Ecomonic and Educational Commitees of the Government and moved to Cracow.