We present the church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose original design was prepared by a Polish architect. It was eventually built according to the design of one of Crimea's best architects. In the 19th century, the community of Catholic faithful in Yalta was an international community, among which Poles predominated.

Historical outline - construction of the church in Yalta
In the 1880s, the Yalta Catholic community numbered about 500 people who gathered for prayer in a small house. In 1888, the community asked the Department of Foreign Religious Spiritual Affairs for permission to build a church. To shorten the long decision-making process, the parishioners elected commissioners to find a suitable site. The Poles, Colonel M.O. Malinowski, Dr Bialokur and the Frenchman Vergé, indicated a plot of land along Puszynski Boulevard. However, it was not until 10 years later (in 1898) that the Ministry of the Interior authorised the construction.

At that time, the original design of the temple by the Polish architect M. Komornicki from Simferopol was lost. The building committee therefore commissioned a new design. Its author was one of the best architects of Crimea, Nikolai Krasnov (1864-1939). He created the Tsar's palace in Livadia, the Alexander Nevsky church in Yalta, and was also involved in designing the palaces of the Yusupovs in Koreiz in the Crimea and the Romanovs (Haraks in Gaspra and Doulber in Yalta).

The Yalta Catholic community collected donations throughout the years of waiting for the decision, whether in Yalta, Moscow or Tiraspol, as well as in the Tiraspol diocese. However, due to lack of funds, the spire with the bell tower was not completed. On Easter, 15 April 1906, the church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was consecrated by Tiraspol Bishop Joseph Kessler (1862-1933). The first Catholic priest of the Yalta district was Fr Mikolaj Suchodolski. In turn, the parish was made up of Poles, Czechs, Germans, French and Italians.

Historical outline - the church in Yalta today
During the Soviet era, the Roman Catholic Church in Yalta was persecuted like many other religious communities. Under the pretext of the catastrophic condition of the building caused by the earthquake on 20 October 1927, the church was closed. The building was first used as a shooting range and then as a sports hall. Since 1945, it has housed branches of the local history museum.

At the end of the 1980s, restoration work was carried out on the church building according to a design by the architect A. Grauzis. The restoration restored the building to its original appearance. Special furniture was ordered from Lviv and an organ with 2604 pipes and 32 registers was installed (1988). In 1989, the House of Organ and Chamber Music was opened.

Return of the church to Catholics
The first service in the reopened church was celebrated in December 1991 by the Dominican friar Zygmunt Kozara. Thanks to the efforts of the monks, the church was officially returned to the faithful. Since 2002, it has belonged to the Odesa-Symferopol diocese and is under the care of the Dominican order.

In 1993, the Dominicans bought back the organ from the local authorities. The first organist of the church was the organmaster V. Khromchenko, who at the same time removed faults in the organ and repaired it. Until 2014, it was used for both services and concerts.

Since 2024, due to the occupation of Crimea by Russian troops, the activities of the parish in Yalta have been subject to restrictions, but the church itself has not been closed.

Architecture of the church in Yalta
The church in Yalta was built in a neo-Gothic style. It consists of a main nave closed with an apse and two side aisles and a chancel. The building stands out from the surrounding urban development with its unusual appearance, refined and original forms. It is surrounded by exotic plants: palms, cypresses, laurel bushes, rose trees and pomegranates. The vegetation not only adorns the courtyard, but is also reminiscent of a garden of paradise.

Unlike western portals in religious buildings, the church in Yalta has a single portal entering the nave. The setting of its doorway is dominated by features of the Neo-Gothic style. These include the use of a pointed arch and fashionable forms of decoration, such as the precise execution of mouldings, cusps (so-called frogs) and capitals in the Corinthian order. The framing of the entrance consists of small architectural and sculptural elements. These are symmetrically arranged pilasters with pinnacles and double columns on either side of the entrance. The triangular pediment is framed by a profiled cornice. A leaf motif of three elements, symbolising the Holy Trinity in Christian art, is scattered across the pediment.

Above the portal is a neo-Gothic rosette framed in a circle. The triple rose core is surrounded by petals. This form combines the symbols of the circle (perfection), the circle (eternity), the red rose (love and martyrdom) and the Virgin Mary (the immaculate 'Rose without thorns'). Below the rosette is the inscription in Latin: "Deo et Immaculatae Deigenitrici Mariae" (Polish: "Dedicated to God and the Immaculate Virgin Mary").

Interior of the church in Yalta
The total area of the church is over 500 m2 (45 m long, 20 m wide and 9 m high). The building has a basement and two crypts on the sides of the western and eastern elevations. The walls of the church, which are 0.75 m thick, are made of hewn stone, carefully worked cuboidal blocks of grey stone (700×350×350 cm). The stone columns are covered with marbleisation, while the floor is made of polished marble. The building is decorated with 16 windows with neo-Gothic stained glass and 10 wooden doors. The spiritual experience is enhanced by the rich interior decoration of the church and the subdued light shining through the stained glass windows.

In the chancel, the historic altar is replaced by the organ, in front of which is the post-conciliar altar. The unusual positioning of the instrument is a permanent result of the adaptation of the building to function as an 'organ hall', which took place at the end of the Soviet era. The wooden organ case is decorated with contemporary images of the Virgin and Child and Dominican saints.