Submit additional information
ID: POL-001989-P

Parish Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Levandovka

ID: POL-001989-P

Parish Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Levandovka

History
The first discussions about the need to build a separate pastoral institution in Lewandowka, which belonged to the parish of St Elizabeth, started already before the First World War. At that time, efforts were started to obtain land for a church, although, of course, the war significantly thwarted these plans. In 1918, the idea of building a church for about 3,000 Roman Catholics was revived. At first, the plan was to build a provisional wooden chapel, which was to be replaced by a brick church over time. However, this idea did not come to fruition, not least because of the unresolved issue of the donation of the land. The following years, however, brought positive developments. In 1921 In 1921, the Lviv City Council donated the land for the construction of the church, and a committee was re-established to collect the necessary materials. That same year, a separate parish was established on Levandivka, although the canonical decree was not issued until two years later. The design for the church at Lewandowka was made gratuitously by architect Henryk Zaremba and was approved at a meeting of the church building committee held on 24 October 1921. Less than a month later, the Lviv curia agreed to bless the site. In the spring of 1922, its construction began. The construction was financially supported by, among others, Ordynat Alfred Potocki, owner of the Lewandowka estate.

On 5 August 1923, the church was solemnly consecrated by Rev. Wincenty Czajkowski. A week after the consecration, a painting of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, brought from Rome, was introduced into the church. The construction of the church was completed in October, symbolically crowning it with a cross. During the following period, efforts were made to complete the church furnishings, with the Women's Rosary Confraternity helping in particular. A six-voice harmonium, a musical instrument from the group of keyboard wind instruments, was then purchased. In 1926, bells were added, which were consecrated by Archbishop Bolesław Twardowski.

Almost a decade later, in 1937, due to parcelling out, i.e. the division of agricultural land into smaller plots, planning began for a new church to be built on a different site. Two years later, it was decided to demolish the old church and decide that the new one should stand at the junction of Municipal and Aviation Streets. However, construction was prevented due to the outbreak of the Second World War.

In October 1945, Father Władysław Witkowski, who had been the administrator of the parish in Lewandówka, left Lviv. The following year, his colleague Fr Jan Maruszczak did the same, and on 4 June he handed over the keys to the church and took some of the church inventory with him to Poland. Initially, the exported items went to Bytom, where the priest went. Some of them were deposited in the crypt of St. Jacek's Church (specifically: a harmonium, the body of "Christ Crucified", 6 plaster figures and 6 metal candlesticks and an electric spider). Other items were kept by Fr Maruszczak at his flat, including the painting 'Our Lady Immaculately Conceived', a monstrance, a reliquary of the Holy Cross, etc. There is a high probability that these items later made their way to Domaniów in the Olawa district, where Fr Maruszczak became parish priest. It is also likely that some of the items from the church in Lewandowka were taken away by parishioners and the previously mentioned Father Witkowski. In 1968, some items were handed over to the curia in Lubaczów, while others went to Lubliniec Nowe (including, for example, the Fisharmony) and to Gliwice, where they were stored in the churches of St Barbara, All Saints and St Peter and Paul.

The history of the church after the Second World War is not entirely clear. There is a chance that it was taken over by the Orthodox Church, also performing its functions until 1960, when it was demolished. Roughly in its place, between 1991 and 1996, the Church of Our Lady of Peace, designed by the architect Roman Syvenski, which belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, was built. There is also no information on the fate of the furnishings of the earlier church, except for that of the reliquary of the Holy Cross, which was identified in the church in Domaniów.

Architecture
The church was made of wood, with a timber construction and oriented, i.e. specially oriented with respect to the sides of the world. It was also fragmentarily made of brick, which is how the sacristy and external pillars were made. It was built on stone foundations. The church was plastered and consisted of a rectangular nave and a narrower, shorter presbytery, closed with a trilateral arch, on the north side of which there was a sacristy. The interior was covered with a trapezoidal ceiling. In the side walls of the nave, the windows were rectangular in shape, similar windows, but slightly narrower, could be found in the chancel and the sacristy, while in the vestibule of the sacristy, the windows were closed semicircularly, although still rectangular. They were also decorated with stained glass. The main entrance was also rectangular in shape. The music choir was supported by four pillars and was accessed by a staircase, which was located in the north-west corner of the nave. A low plinth is prominent in the elevations. There was also a porch of four columns which carried the eaves, above which was an abutment with the Eye of Providence in the tympanum. The roofs were with wide eaves. There was also a quadrilateral turret for a signal box with windows with 'crystal' decoration, surmounted by a high pyramidal canopy with a ball and cross.

Elements of the church furnishings were certainly: the main altar, made after 1922, with a stone mena on the pillars, under which was the painting 'Our Lady of Perpetual Help', the side altar, also made after 1922, wooden, which also served as an Easter tomb, with a sculpture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and a painting depicting St Teresa. There was also a makeshift wooden pulpit, accessible by steps from the vestibule of the sacristy, and an oak font. The only surviving piece of equipment is a neo-Gothic reliquary of the Holy Cross, made of gilded metal, in the shape of a turreted monstrance. We know that there was also a brick vicarage.

The temple no longer exists; its appearance is known from the only surviving photograph and from the architect's remaining designs. The reconstruction of the building's form is somewhat hampered by the fact that the floor plan does not fully correspond to the remaining drawings - the positioning of the columns, for example, is different. The cross-section also shows handwritten changes, so it is difficult to say which variant was finally realised in the 1920s. What is known is that the church in Levandovka was distinguished by its picturesqueness, achieved primarily through the rich composition of its body. It was an example of "native" religious building, i.e. it referred to traditional wooden architecture. Interestingly, the architect (Henryk Zaremba) was not inspired by sacral wooden architecture or the Zakopane style, but rather used motifs drawn from secular architecture, primarily court architecture. Particularly noteworthy is the type of decoration, envisaged in the design, although probably not fully realised, characteristic of the Polish variety of art déco, i.e. the fact that some windows and the turret for the signature tower were decorated with triangular and rhombus motifs.

Related persons:
Time of origin:
1921 (design), 1922-1923 (construction)
Creator:
Henryk Zaremba (architekt, właściciel firmy budowlanej; Polska)(preview)
Bibliography:
  • Katarzyna Brzezina, „Kościół Parafialny p.w. Matki Boskiej Nieustającej Pomocy na Lewandówce” [w:] „Materiały do dziejów sztuki sakralnej na ziemiach wschodnich dawnej Rzeczypospolitej. Kościoły i klasztory Lwowa z wieków XIX i XX.” Cz. I. T. 12., Kraków 2004, 217-224.
Author:
Izabela Miecznikowska
see more Text translated automatically

Related projects

1
  • Katalog poloników Show