Antoni Wiwulski

Who was Antoni Wiwulski?

Antoni Wiwulski or Antanas Vivulskis was a Polish-Lithuanian architect and sculptor.

He was born February 20, 1877 in Totma in Vologda Governorate in the Russian Empire, where his father, of Lithuanian origin, served as a forest superintendent. He graduated from the reputable Jesuit boarding school Zakład Naukowo-Wychowawczy Ojców Jezuitów w Chyrowie and then two of the most prestigious art and architecture universities of the epoch: the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Higher Technical School in Vienna.

Among the most notable of his works are:

the Battle of Grunwald monument in Kraków, Poland

Chapel in Šiluva, Lithuania

Three Crosses on the Hill of the Three Crosses Vilnius, Lithuania

the Holy Heart of Jesus' Church in Vilnius, Lithuania

The latter building was started in 1913 and was the first example of usage of reinforced concrete in former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Wiwulski, astonished by the possibility to build gigantic buildings of the newly rediscovered material prepared a project of a giant church with a stylised gigantic sculpture of the Creator sitting on the dome. However, the project was discontinued after Wiwulski's death on January 10, 1919.