The former Church of St Michael the Archangel in Sokal – a former Roman Catholic parish church situated in Sokal. It is currently used as a block of flats and the headquarters of the public health inspectorate.

History
From the very beginning, the parish in Sokal was part of the Diocese of Chełm. Following the First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, by virtue of an Austrian decree, it was incorporated into the Diocese of Przemyśl, and in 1787 into the Archdiocese of Lviv, to which it remained until 1951.

The origins of the Sokal parish date back to the 15th century – the rector of this church was first recorded in sources as early as 1409, although the oldest surviving evidence of the parish’s existence dates only from 1517.

Nothing is known about the first, oldest church in Sokal. It is unclear whether it stood on the left bank of the Bug, where Sokal was originally situated, or on the opposite bank. What is certain is that the church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In 1477, the town councillors endowed it with a silver monstrance, crafted in Lviv by the goldsmith Augustyn. According to tradition, the church housed a painting of Our Lady of Sokal, which, in 1519, following a fire, was moved to the local Bernardine church.

At the beginning of the 17th century (1603), the wooden parish church stood on the right bank of the Bug River, where the new town was being established, and was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saints Peter, Paul and John the Apostles. In 1633, it was extended to include the Chapel of the Holy Trinity, founded by Tomasz Zagrobski, the owner of the villages of Konotopy and Wasylów. The church was plundered and desecrated by Cossacks and Rusyns from the surrounding villages during the Khmelnytsky Uprising. It is most likely that the construction of a new church began following this event, as sources from 1672 describe it as a brick building. In September 1678, a fire broke out in the church, destroying the roof and its truss; however, the furnishings were unharmed and the damage was repaired by 1680. Sources from 1714 describe the church in Sokal as dedicated to St John the Baptist. Inside, there were as many as eight altars, with a further two situated in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary. The church was richly furnished with liturgical furnishings and vestments.

Unfortunately, the parish church burnt down in 1772, and services were moved to the former Brigidine church (dissolved by an imperial decree of 24 June 1782). Work to clear up the damage caused by the fire began the following year. Shortly after the church and convent of the Brigidine Sisters in Sokal were dissolved, the buildings were handed over to the local parish. The church was then enlarged and reconsecrated in 1783. The former parish church became the Chapel of St John the Baptist.

In 1870, during the great fire at the Bernardine monastery in Sokal, the flames spread to the other side of the Bug River and destroyed the parish church and the former Brigidine convent, which housed the rectory. All the furnishings were destroyed, except for the sculpture of the Crucified Christ from the side altar. The church also suffered considerable damage during the Russian occupation in the First World War (among other things, the bells were confiscated). The cost of repairing the church was estimated at 3,000 crowns. The renovation of the Chapel of St John the Baptist was expected to cost a further 3,000 crowns. However, there were no funds available to carry out major works. It was not until 1932–1935 that a decision was taken to undertake a major renovation, involving the extension of the church by incorporating the southern cloisters of the former monastery into the nave. This idea dated back to 1898, but at that time there were no funds to carry it out.

Throughout the interwar period, construction continued on the new parish church of St Michael the Archangel, initially in the Neo-Gothic style, but ultimately in Modernist forms.

Following the border adjustments in 1951, Poles were displaced from Sokal by the Soviet Ukrainian authorities, and the parish church and the Chapel of St John the Baptist were closed. The Church of St Bridget was eventually demolished, and a wing of the former convent was converted into a block of flats. The Chapel of St John the Baptist was converted into a fertiliser store, and since 1972 it has housed the regional sanitary and epidemiological station and flats.

Architecture
The old parish church (later a chapel) of St John the Baptist is situated in the northern part of the town, near the Old Market Square in Sokal. It was a brick building, on a rectangular plan, with a single nave and a chancel enclosed on three sides. The façade was topped with a gable, with the corners accentuated by obelisks. On the roof stood a small turret housing the bell. It has now been extensively rebuilt.

The former Church of St Bridget was situated in the south-western part of the town, on the bank of a river escarpment. The extensive grounds of the church and convent complex were surrounded by a brick defensive wall with circular towers. The church was oriented (with the chancel facing east), built of brick with a single-nave body and a lower chancel closed off by a semicircular apse. The façade was two-storeyed, with the upper section framed by volute mouldings and crowned with a triangular pediment. On the south-western side, it was connected to a wing of the monastery. The church was demolished after 1951 under unknown circumstances and no longer exists.