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ID: POL-001565-P

Parish Church of St. Isidore the ploughman in Rymaczy

Rymacze | Ukraine
ukr. Rymaczi (Римачі)
ID: POL-001565-P

Parish Church of St. Isidore the ploughman in Rymaczy

Rymacze | Ukraine
ukr. Rymaczi (Римачі)

Parish in Rymaczachy
Unconfirmed source information states that the village of Rymaczachy was founded in the 15th century by Wladyslaw Jagiello himself. On the other hand, we know that the village existed in 1442, because it was then that Władysław Warneńczyk gave it to Krystyna from Wilczypol. For centuries, the village was relatively small and had few inhabitants.

The parish in Rymaczy was established in 1925. A few years earlier (1921) the census confirmed that the village was then inhabited by 1233 people, most of whom were of Polish nationality and Roman Catholics. The parish was never formally abolished, but went out of business after the Soviet authorities took over the church in 1944.

The history of St Izydor Oracza Parish Church St. Isidore the Ploughman
. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a chapel building was constructed in Rymaczy by local farmers, in hiding and under the guise of a grain store (in 1927 it was stated that this had taken place "decades ago"). Before the outbreak of the First World War, plans to build a church had been made, but were prevented by the partitioning authorities. The restoration of Poland's independence, however, soon made it possible to start building a church. In August 1926, a Church Building Committee was formed, headed by forest inspector Wacław Krasnopolski. The plan was to build a new, temporary chapel and find suitable housing for the pastor. The new chapel is built in early 1927 and consecrated a few months later.

The following year, work actively began on the construction of the church building. The Kowel-based engineer Tadeusz Krafft was entrusted with the design and cost estimate. In June, the project was approved and its implementation was instructed to another engineer from the same town, Zygmunt Trzeciak. Interestingly, although construction of the foundations began as early as 1928 (the original plans envisaged that construction would be completed by 1929), this construction was actually carried out illegally, as the building permit was not obtained until 1930. At the end of 1928, the foundations and foundation stone of the church were consecrated by Bishop Stefan Walczykiewicz.

The cooperation with the engineer Zygmunt Trzeciak ended in 1931, the church was still not ready at that time. Determining the next ruts in the formation of the church in Rymaczy is difficult, as the surviving documents do not form a coherent picture of it. The pupils of the State School of Building Crafts in Kremenets under the direction of Michal Pagtasz were engaged for the construction. However, his authority was questioned by the Lubomelski District Assembly Department in 1931, which ordered the construction to be halted. Nonetheless, more elements were built in the following years - in 1932 the tin roofing, in 1933 or 1934 the iron windows were made.

The construction of the main body of the church was completed in 1933 or 1934. In 1933 the church was consecrated by Father Stefan Jastrzębski, dean of Lubomelsk. However, work on finishing the church was still ongoing, and by the end of the interwar period the church was still lacking a floor, towers and fencing. Work on completing the Rymaczy church was continually being carried out, but was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War.

History of the church since the Second World War
During the war, the Rymachy church was damaged by a German shell in 1941, but the damaged vault and roof were repaired in the same year. The church furnishings remained in place at the time, only being taken away to Chelm in 1943. During the war, the church was used as a garrison chapel by the 43rd Infantry Regiment of the 27th Volhynian Division of the AK.

At the end of the war, in 1944, the church was destroyed and profaned by the Soviet army. After 1945, the church was converted into a village club and dance hall, and later into a mill and fodder store. This use contributed to considerable damage to the building.

After the collapse of the USSR, repairs to the church were carried out. A fairly basic one, limited to the replacement of windows and doors and the roof covering, was carried out in 1996. The church became functional again, but due to a lack of worshippers, it was handed over to the Orthodox Church in 2011, which changed its denomination to St Peter and St Paul and carried out reconstruction work to give the church an Orthodox character.

Architecture
The church in Rymaczy is a brick building, oriented, situated in the centre of the village. It was erected on a stone plinth. Built on a Latin cross plan, it is a pseudo-basilica with a three-nave body with three bays and a single-span chancel. The chancel is triangular on the outside and semicircular on the inside. The eastern bay of the body is slightly elongated relative to the others, and with the chapels added to it forms a pseudo-transept.

The chancel of the church has two rectangular annexes, and the body has an additional front annex, which includes a music choir, a porch and a tower at the corner. The interior of the body is articulated with Tuscan pseudo-pillars. The church is vaulted with pseudo-cross vaults, except for the transept chapels where we find cradle vaults. The annexes and the porch have Klein ceilings, and the vestibules: flat ceilings.

The façade of the church has a distinct central section, corresponding to the nave, which ends in a triangular gable. It has an elaborate framing of the main entrance in the form of a risalit placed in a high, semicircular closed recess. It is topped off with a cornice and attic, which once housed a painting depicting St. Isidore the ploughman, of which only remnants remain today. The church has a sheet metal roof.

The church's architecture draws on various historical styles, from Romanesque and Gothic to modern interior design.

After reconstruction in 2014, the church took on the characteristics of an Orthodox church. Today, the dominant architectural feature is the three domes with lanterns rising above the naves of the body, topped with golden Orthodox crosses.

Church equipment:
Even before the basic body of the church was built, efforts were made in 1926 to acquire an altar painting depicting the patron saint of the existing chapel and the future church. The painting in question, entitled 'Prayer of St. Isidore the Ploughman', was signed 'A. W. Ziętkiewicz" and dated 1927, is now housed in the Pławanice branch church. Behind the signature is most probably Antoni Ziętkiewicz, an artist born in 1875 in Jadowniki, who received his artistic education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. The altar in which the painting was placed was commissioned in 1934. It was a wooden altarpiece by Walerian Turewicz, in neo-Baroque style. It did not remain in the church in Rymaczy, but was moved to the parish church in Kamień near Chełm. Similarly, the church of St Izydor the ploughman once housed a pheretron dating from the 1920s, with paintings depicting the Virgin Mary and St Valentine. It was moved to the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Chełm. The church's furnishings also included a brass and gilded reliquary of St Stanislaus Szczepanowski, which was transferred to the museum at the Church of the Dissemination of the Apostles, also in Chełm. The church equipment also included two bells made by the Felczyński Brothers factory. Delivered in 1929, however, they proved to be a huge financial burden for the church, and to this day we do not know whether the parish ever settled the debt incurred for them.

Time of origin:
1928-approx. 1934
Creator:
Tadeusz Krafft (architekt, inżynier; Łomża, Wołyń)(preview), Zygmunt Trzeciak (inżynier; Soczi)(preview), Walerian Turewicz (rzeźbiarz, malarz; ziemia chełmińska)(preview), Antoni Ziętkiewicz (malarz; Polska, ziemia Wołyńska)(preview)
Bibliography:
  • Mateusz Łepkowski, Jan K. Ostrowski, „Kościół parafialny p.w. Św. Izydora Oracza w Rymaczach”, [w:] „Materiały do dziejów sztuki sakralnej na ziemiach wschodnich dawnej Rzeczpospolitej”, cz.1, „Kościoły i klasztory rzymskokatolickie dawnego województwa ruskiego”, red. Jan K. Ostrowski, Kraków 2014, t. 22, s. 291-303.
Supplementary bibliography:

Mateusz Łepkowski, Jan K. Ostrowski, Kościół parafialny p.w. Św. Izydora Oracza w Rymaczach , [in:] Materiały do dziejów sztuki sakralnej na ziemiach wschodnich dawnej Rzeczpospolitej , cz.1, Kościoły i klasztory rzymskokatolickie dawnego województwa ruskiego , ed. Jan K. Ostrowski, vol. 22, Kraków 2014, pp.291-303.

Author:
Magdalena Puchalska
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