Information about the object:
The Neo-Gothic Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Chernivtsi was built between 1892 and 1894. The temple was built by the Jesuits on the land received from the city and the sacrifices of the Polish population living in Chernivtsi and the Bukowina. After the war, the Soviet authorities turned it into an archive. Since the 2010s, when the church was returned, it has been gradually renovated, with the participation of parishioners. Two reinforced concrete ceilings and partition walls, which were placed during the period of the archive, have been removed. Windows were also put in, the roof was patched and the crypt where the coffins of the 59 Hallerians are located was renovated.

The Jesuits were brought to Chernivtsi by the Archbishop Sigismund Szczesny in 1885, who initially donated his house. The church was finished when Franciszek Eberhard was parish priest (1894). The Polish Jesuits remained in Chernivtsi to work until 1944, when the last parish priest was arrested and deported to Kazakhstan. Afterwards, the church was given to the Orthodox for a short period of time, later it was decided to use the building for secular purposes - the archives were arranged in it. The church used to be decorated with stained-glass windows brought from Grotov (Bielsko-Biała), wall paintings by the painter Kaschan from Mikolayev, and the main altar and pulpit by Shtufleser from Austria. The organ, on the other hand, was made in Rieger's workshop in Endorf. In 1864, three bells were imported from Edinburgh. In 1901 a clock ordered from Prague was installed. Above the clock a silver picture of the Virgin Mary was placed, and above it and on the sides 3 silver plates in German and two in Polish were installed. In the church, before the establishment of the Soviet state, there were 4 side altars and reliefs depicting the Stations of the Cross hung on the walls. In the 1980s, the remains of the furnishings were taken away and donated to the Chernivtsi museum. Despite pleas from the local authorities and the Ukrainian Minister of Culture, the parish is still unable to recover its property. Nothing remains of the rich furnishings apart from the clock and the stained glass in the upper parts of the windows and the rosette with stained glass and the remnants of the frescoes on the columns.

Completed works:
The focus of the current restoration season was on foundation isolation work, which consisted of repairing the seams of the masonry surfaces, drilling holes, filling holes, applying levelling plaster, and vertically sealing the foundations.

Funding: Programme of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage "Protection of Cultural Heritage Abroad".

More about the project: https://polonika.pl

• Towarzystwo Jezusowe Prowincja Polski Południowej, realizacja w roku 2021.