The photo shows an early view of the Residence of the Greek-Orthodox Bishop in Chernivtsi.
From 1873 on he was the Metropolitan of the Bukowina and Dalmatia, being the head of all Orthodox believers in the Habsburg Empire. The impressive structure was buit between 1864 and 1882 and replaced an older residence from the 1780s. It sits on a hill overlooking the city.
The driving force behind the project was Bishop Eugen Hacman, the architect was Josef Hlavka from Bohemia. The necessary amount of 1,75 million Guilders came mainly from the funds of the Greek-Orthodox Church of the Bukowina (Griechisch Orientalischer Religionsfonds).
The ensemble in moorish-byzantine style consists of three wings which surround an inner courtyard: the central Bishop’s residence with a balcony, the Seminary with a church on the left side and the monastery on the right side. Behind the Bishop’s residence there is a large private garden.
The building housed the greek-orthodox theological faculty ot the university of Chernivtsi which attracted students from all over the Empire, south-eastern Europe and the Middle East. After the second Wold War, the orthodox seminary was closed, the Bishop moved to Romania and the building, which was severely damaged by fire during the war, was handed over to the University of Chernivtsi, as main building of which it serves until today.
The photo shows the whole building from a southern perspective and some construction sites or empty building plots in the area between Residenz Gasse and Stern Gasse.
