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Parish Church of St John the Baptist in Podbuż, photo Shtukatulka, 2016
Licencja: CC BY-SA 4.0, Źródło: Wikimedia Commons, Warunki licencji
Fotografia przedstawiająca Parish Church of St John the Baptist in Podbuż
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ID: POL-002067-P

Parish Church of St John the Baptist in Podbuż

Podbuż | Ukraine
ukr. Підбуж
ID: POL-002067-P

Parish Church of St John the Baptist in Podbuż

Podbuż | Ukraine
ukr. Підбуж
Variants of the name:
Cerkiew Wniebowstąpienia Pańskiego w Podbużu

Historical outline
The village was first mentioned in a document by King Władysław Warneńczyk in 1439. From the very beginning, the village belonged to the parish of Dublany. Later, between 1747 and 1794, it came under the administration of Vinnytsia. The proverbial good fortune was that the parish in this village was severely restricted by the dissolution of the Piarist order that looked after it. Although attempts were made to reactivate it at the beginning of the 19th century, this did not materialise. Years passed and in the second half of the century efforts were again made to establish an entity that could provide pastoral care for the area, and this time it fell on Podbuzh.

As early as 1859, a dispensary was established in the village. In practice, this meant the nucleus of a parish. At the end of the 19th century, 19 villages belonged to it: Bystrzyca, Dołhe, Kropiwnik Nowy i Stary, Łopuszna (Łopuszanka), Łukawica, Majdan, Malmanstal (Mallmansthal), Mokrzany, Nahujowice, Opaka, Podbuż, Podmanasterek (Podmanasterz), Rybnik, Smolna, Uroż, Winniki, Załokieć and Zdzianna.

Services were initially held in a Greek Catholic church. However, in parallel with the establishment of the exposition, one of the believers named Lesiewicz donated a plot of land for the construction of a full-fledged church. Eventually, it was decided to carry out the project on a property donated by another parishioner, Dubrawski. In the early 1860s, funds began to be raised, and in 1864 a design for the church was drawn up. The construction was carried out very smoothly, and already a year later Podbuzh had its first brick Roman Catholic church. Although the sources say that it was a very simple and modest building, it certainly made the inhabitants proud. It was consecrated in 1869.

The building is one thing. The parish is a separate chapter. Procedures were severely hampered not only by the bureaucracy piled up by the partitioners, but also for structural reasons. After all, the parish in Podbuzh was to include many villages in the area. Transforming the extensive documentation took a considerable amount of time. The independent parish of Podbuzh was created in 1910, and it was only eighteen years later that it was elevated to the status of a non-removable parish.

In 1914, the church was severely damaged. In addition, the Austrian authorities requisitioned the largest bell. Renovation work did not begin until 1923 on the initiative of Father Władysław Bachota and stretched over many years due to a lack of funds. Until 1929, masses were celebrated in the local Greek-Catholic church. The breakthrough came in the early 1930s, when the church not only received a refreshed appearance, but also significant liturgical equipment. In 1933, the organ was renovated.

The changes brought by the Second World War led to the displacement of Poles from the village. The parish was liquidated in early 1945. The abandoned building was rebuilt and served various functions during the Soviet era. In the 1990s, it housed a painting workshop and the headquarters of the Greek Catholic Church choir. Today, it is the Orthodox Church of the Ascension, also sometimes referred to as a chapel due to its not very large size.

Architecture
The building is located in the southern part of the village near Ivan Franko Street, on a square surrounded by a metal fence. It consists of a rectangular, three-bay nave with a tower at the front, and a narrower, single-bay, trilateral chancel facing south-west, with square sacristy and treasury annexes to its sides. The side elevations of the nave are framed by two-bay buttresses. The building is covered by a gable roof with sheet metal. The chancel is topped by a multi-pitched roof. The roof on the church is gabled, with a multi-pitched, sheet metal roof over the chancel end.

The transformations that were carried out after the Second World War and the lack of adequate documentation make it impossible to reconstruct the full artistic vision of the project. However, it can be said with certainty that the architecture was modest and the stylistic features not very expressive. Sources speak of the neo-Gothic character of the building, but today few elements can attest to this.

Time of origin:
1865
Bibliography:
  • Rafał Quirini-Popławski „Kościół parafialny pw. św. Jana Chrzciciela w Podbużu.” W: „Materiały do dziejów sztuki sakralnej na ziemiach wschodnich dawnej Rzeczypospolitej.” Cz. 1: „Kościoły i klasztory rzymskokatolickie dawnego województwa ruskiego” T. 6. Kraków: Międzynarodowe Centrum Kultury w Krakowie, 1998, s. 145-150.
Publikacja:
19.07.2024
Ostatnia aktualizacja:
19.07.2024
Author:
Michał Dziadosz
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