Vasyl Nahirnyj

Vasyl Nahirnyi (1848-1921) was a prominent Ukrainian and Galician architect and public figure, one of the founders of the cooperative movement and various societies whose activities brought Ukrainians in Galicia to a qualitatively new level of life.

One in four churches in Galicia was built according to his design - more than 200 churches in total. He based his first church in the village of Malyi Yarychiv in the Lviv region on the main Byzantine church, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. The Nahirny style is called the newest Galician school of sacred construction. Churches of this style usually have from one to five domes.