Tomb of Katarzyna Markowska

The Markowski tomb, known as the “lying maiden,” is one of the most famous monuments in Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv. The full-figure sculpture depicts a dying, beautiful young woman lying on a bed—Katarzyna Markowska, who was a Lviv actress and the wife of Ludwik Markowski, an official and court adjunct.

Everything indicates that she is gravely ill. The richly folded blanket, partially slipping off the bed, and her hair scattered on the pillow all suggest that the woman is in a restless sleep, tossing and turning in the bedding. It is a high-quality sculpture.

The creator of this work was the very talented Lviv sculptor Julian Markowski (1846-1903), a January Uprising insurgent and friend of the painter Artur Grottger. Markowski learned his craft under Parys Filippi. Since 1870, he operated his own sculpture and stone workshop on Piekarska Street, near Lychakiv Cemetery, creating mainly tomb monuments, but also statues, decorative sculptures, and statues for public buildings, executed in the style of academic historicism.