Historical outline
The village is situated about 8 km north-west of the Zlatý Potok, in the former Bučac district. Porchowa was first mentioned as early as the 15th century. The owners over the centuries include: Jan Buczacki, the Jazłowiecki family, Kajetan Potocki, Romuald Michał Szawłowski, the Cielecki family of the Zaremba coat of arms, Elżbieta Baworowska of the Czosnowskis and her son Jerzy Adam Baworowski, to whom the administrative unit belonged just before World War II.

Initially, the village was under the parish of Jazłowiec, and from the second half of the 16th century under the parish of Barsz. Interestingly, there were two Greek Catholic churches in Porchowa, and the clergy from these churches undertook to celebrate special masses for Poles on major holidays.

The first Roman Catholic church was built in the village in 1893 and was a wooden structure. It bore the invocation of the Nativity of St John the Baptist and was founded by Artur Cielecki, then owner of Porchowa. Services were held there by visiting priests from Barycz and the Salesians from Pużniki. In 1906, Cielecki founded the land and endowment that formed the basis for the future parish. In the same year, an exposition was established in the village, initially covering the village itself, and three years later also including Ścianka and Zubrzec.

In 1919, Ukrainian troops murdered Father Jan Dziugiewicz, who was the exposition's priest in Porchowa. This tragedy was widely echoed throughout Poland, and the priest was described as a martyr for the Faith and the Homeland. In 1925, the exposition was elevated to parish status. At the same time, the construction of a new brick church began on the basis of a project by the well-known Lviv architect Bronislav Wiktor. The project was completed in 1930 and it was then that a decision was made to demolish the old wooden church.

The 1930s were a time when improvements were made to the construction of the new building. It soon became apparent that the nave section was in danger of collapse. Services were therefore held in the strict confines of the chancel. Repairs continued until 1939, although even then the building was not yet fully finished as (according to sources) the floor was missing.

Within the parish there were public chapels in Ścianka (consecrated 1896) and Zubrzec (consecrated 1898). In the inter-war period, the Living Rosary Association and the Catholic Young Women's Association were active at the parish.

In the mid-1940s, murders by Ukrainians forced the Polish population to leave the village. In February 1945, Father Franciszek Rozwód celebrated the last mass in the Porch church. Some of the furnishings (including the painting of the "Blessed Virgin Mary Queen of the Polish Crown") were taken to Poland.

During the domination of the USSR, the building served as a kolkhoz grain and fertiliser warehouse. It was restored and consecrated two years later.

Architecture
The building is situated on a small hill dominating the village. The church, built of local sandstone and brick, is plastered. The building is oriented, i.e. it faces towards the conventional east, by implication towards Jerusalem. It consists of a three-bay nave, flanked by side chapels and a narrower and lower single-span chancel, which is closed with a semicircle. At its sides are annexes containing the vault and sacristy. The nave is preceded by a rectangular porch with a choir and an additional room. The porch is flanked on the sides by flanked annexes. Its façade is single-axis, framed by sloping buttresses, which are "sandwiched" between the main body and the annexes. It is finished with a triangular gable, slightly lower than the analogous one that crowns the upper part of the nave elevation. In the gable of the porch there is a rectangular niche closed with a semicircle. Below this is a window of similar shape. A circular window is placed in the front gable of the nave. The outer side elevations and the chancel elevations have no vertical articulation.

Simple gable roofs are placed over the nave, the porch and the south annex. Above the chancel and chapels located at the middle bay of the nave, they are identical but transition to conical. Above the other parts, they are pulpit and quarter conical. All are covered with sheet metal. The turret for the signature tower is similar. It was created on the plan of an octagon and was topped with a two-stage bell-shaped canopy topped with a knop and cross.

The walls of the nave in the middle are divided by lisens, which turn into vaulted gables. A similar treatment has been applied to the altar area. The iris arcade and the arcades between the nave and the chapels are semicircular. The large clearance between the nave space and the room at the back of the music choir has been closed with a semicircle, as have the passages between the chapels.

The nave was covered with a wooden pseudo-vaulted barrel vault with small lunettes. The presbytery and chapels are similarly covered. Other rooms are closed from above with cross vaults (chapels) and ceilings (annexes at the chancel, room at the back of the choir). Most of the windows in the building are rectangular, closed with a semicircle or segmental.

The most important elements related to the furnishings and surroundings of the church include:

• The wooden main altar with the painting "Najświętsza Panna Maria Królowa Korony Polskiej" by Anna Weltz;
• Neo-Renaissance side altars;
• Neo-Baroque altarpiece, dating to the early 20th century;
• Wooden sculptures: "Christ Crucified", "Sacred Heart of Jesus", among others;
• Wooden belfry on four posts with shingled roof.
  

As Rafał Quirini-Popławski writes in his study of the building, the church in Porchowa is a building with a varied, picturesque silhouette, consisting of simple masses without any clear historicist features. The only part of the building maintained in the forms favoured by its designer, Bronisław Wiktor, is the gable of the southern annex next to the presbytery, alluding to a modernised neo-Baroque style. Moreover, it is worth noting the sparse detailing, consisting of cornices and bands over the windows and portals, which may have been intended by the designer to refer to provincial buildings of the 17th century.