About the object
Building type: church
Location: Ukraine, Ternopil region, Pidhaitsi
Address: Mazepa street, 2A
End of construction: 1634
Founder: The first building of the church was financed by the voivode of Podilsk and the Przemysh headman Mykhailo Buchatskyi
Heritage Status: Landmark of Architecture and Urban Development of National Importance
Condition: ruins
FUE status: fundraising stage
Correspondent: Bohdan Havryshok
Historical excursion
The first non-surviving building of the church was financed voivode of Podilsk and the Przemysh headman Mykhailo Buchatskyi (1370/1384 – 1438 or 1450). It was located on the territory of the Old City. Whether this church was made of stone is not known. But in 1463, the act of founding the church was resumed by Yakub Buchatskyi.
In 1490, there is information from which it follows that the building itself was wooden, and the Pidhaitsi already then had the Magdeburg right. Frequent raids brought the city to ruins, as a result of which the new owner of Pidhaitsi, Mykolai Volskyi, achieved the restoration of Magdeburg rights in 1539. Pidhaitsi began to develop rapidly, the church was enriched.
From 1600 the church was in the hands of the Protestants. It was destroyed in 1620-1621 during the Turkish-Tatar invasion. The new owner of the city Sofia from Zamikhov published a new fund in 1634. In 1635, she bequeathed money for the construction of the tower and vaults and the completion of construction.
The founder also wrote that after her death, she would be buried in one of the chapels of the church. Perhaps, as historians admit, it was a desire to settle the negative resonance from the many years of struggle that she waged against the Pototski. The latter accused her of misappropriating more than a million treasures, which she gave in Pidhaitsi for temporary storage.
After a long struggle with Sofia in 1641, the crown hetman Stanislav Revera Pototskyi became the new owner of the city. He put a lot of effort into the revival of the city, and in the church itself he financed the construction of the chapel of St. Nicholas, in the dungeons of which, after his death, he was buried.
On October 14 – 19, 1667, a famous battle took place near the city (Battle of Pidhaitsi). Then the united troops of the Cossacks, led by Hetman Petro Doroshenko, and the Tatars, led by Kalga-Sultan Krym Hirei, approached the town, on the outskirts of which Yan III Sobeskyi stationed his troops.
Unable to defeat the Poles in the first battle, attacking began a siege. The fighting ended with the signing of a peace treaty between the warring parties. The contract was signed within the walls of the church. After the military destructions of 1667 and 1686, repairs continued until 1710.
In addition to the main one, there were six more altars in it. And from the side of the chapel, in the choirs, there was an organ, and two bells hung in the tower. Subsequently, the main altar was updated – “made of marble, painted.”
In 1766, due to the unsatisfactory condition of the church, the tower was lowered by more than 10 meters and covered with boards. In 1774, a new stone bell tower was erected, for which new bells were purchased (1778), and new roofs were installed on the church and the tower (1779-1781).
The following information about the church relates to roof repairs in 1867-1869. At the same time, a new large altar was put up at the expense of Yuzef Hurskyi. In July 1892, the roof of the church and the tower burned down from lightning. In 1894-1895, the Ternopil builder Yuzef Piontkovskyi carried out restoration work according to the project of the Krakiv architect Tadei Stryienskyi.
Inside the building were excellent organs. Throughout the outskirts sounded the strikes of the clock on the church tower, established in 1896 by the Catholic community in honor of the 100th anniversary of the uprising led by General Tadeusz Kosciuszko. Separate stone sculptural decorations-angels are kept in the exposition of the Olesko Castle.
In 1912, the church was covered with new mural painting, and in 1927, according to the project of the Lviv architect Bronislav Viktor, a signature was built on the site of the old one, which had fallen in 1924. Not bypassed the church and the Second World War. In 1943 the Germans stole the church bells. In the autumn of 1945, the last dean of Pidhaitsi, Stanislav Popkevych, left the church. Then part of the church was taken to Poland.
In 1950, the abandoned wooden sculpture was loaded onto a truck and, according to the recollections of old-timers, taken to Lviv. Part of the inventory was stolen. For a long time, the miraculous image of the Mother of God of Pidhaitsi was kept in the christianity of the Assumption Church. The devastated church was systematically destroyed by people and from time to time: organs were destroyed, the shrine served as a warehouse.
In the 1970s, it was planned to blow up the church, this shameful act was prevented by the local society for the protection of monuments. By the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR in 1979, the church was included in the Register of Architectural and Urban Planning Monuments of National Importance under security number 1558. In the early 1980s, the tower was destroyed. In the 1980s, as a result of a fire, the vaults and the roof of the tower collapsed.
July 25, 2006 The Ternopil Regional State Administration handed over the church to believers. By this time, the building was in poor condition – the church almost completely lost its roof, vaults, windows, doors. Minor repair and restoration work began in the temple, but due to lack of funds, they progressed very slowly.
