Viitovych, Petro

Viitovych, Petro [Війтович, Петро; Vijtovyč], b 10 June 1862 in Peremyshl, Galicia, d 9 June 1938 in Lviv. Sculptor. After graduating from the Vienna Academy of Arts (1890) he settled in Lviv, where he produced many decorative sculptures for building façades and interiors. His early works include Persius, Slave, Spear Thrower, Kidnapping of a Sabine Woman (1888), and After Bathing (1888). He sculpted the façade and the allegorical figures Trade and Labor at the Main Railway Station in Lviv (1900–4), sculptures on the façade of and inside the Lviv Municipal Theater (now Lviv Theater of Opera and Ballet) (eg, Glory), the crucifixion scene and figures inside Saint Elizabeth’s Church in Lviv, and reliefs inside the Dominican church in Lviv.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]