Jan de Witte

His first son, Jan de Witte (the Younger), after completing schooling in Jesuits' college, joined the ranks of Polish royal artillery corps in February 1726, in which he later served until his death.

Being promoted several times (captain in 1735, major in 1751, lieutenant-colonel in 1754, colonel of the artillery in 1762, major-general in 1767), he finally became lieutenant general in 1781, from 1768 being also appointed as the commander of the mentioned Kamieniec fortress and other minor frontier forts in Podolia simultaneously.

In his later years he also attracted the attention of King Stanisław August Poniatowski, who, in an act of recognition of his loyal duty, highly rated knowledge and works, awarded him with the Order of St. Stanislaus in 1781.

Today, Jan de Witte is primarily known as a designer of numerous architectural works in what is now Western Ukraine, which in the 18th century constituted a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

In 1744 the Dominican brothers of Lwów made a decision to have their old, Gothic temple demolished, due to its very bad condition, and entrusted de Witte with drawing up plans for the new building.

The Dominican church, resembling to some degree and probably also inspired by the works of Fischer von Erlach and Guarini, has the characteristic late Baroque form of a centrally-placed longitudinal oval construction, crowned with an elliptic dome.