Historical outline

The village lies on the River Seret, between Tremblovka and Chortkov. Its name derives from the Bodzanowski family, i.e. the first owners of the estate, who ruled it from the mid-16th century, although there were various legends about this. It has been speculated that the word "Budzanow", comes from the name of a cheese ("Budz", "Bądz") produced by shepherds, who were the alleged founders of the settlement. It is worth noting, however, that irrespective of the onomastic motifs, there was an independent parish in the area of the village as early as 1539. Over the centuries, its administrative affiliation changed, but the nineteenth-century subordination of the parish to the Chortkivsky decanate lasted until the Second World War.

At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, Budzanów belonged to the Taranowskis, then to the Chodorowskis, who sold the estate along with the walled castle and surrounding villages to Aleksander Sienieński. These were troubled times, as the village had to contend with Tartar incursions, but nevertheless its continuous development took place, especially in the crafts professions.

In 1631 the village found itself in the hands of the Lewoczyńskis. Budzanów suffered severely during the Cossack wars. By the mid-17th century, the town was almost completely destroyed. The next owner, Tomasz Łużecki, not only rebuilt the castle, but also heroically defended it during the Turkish siege in 1672. Unfortunately, the enemy broke through the gates and more destruction followed.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the town was owned by Stanisław Antoni Szczuka, secretary to King Jan III Sobieski. Thanks to his support, the crafts professions developed more strongly than ever before. Among others, the following were active in Budzanów: blacksmiths, coopers, stelmakers, wheelwrights, turners, carpenters, potters, bricklayers, millers, and even furriers, shoemakers, saddlers, saddlers, brewers, maltsters, bakers and butchers. In the following years, the town passed into the hands of the Potocki family, who partially rebuilt the castle and converted its western wing into a church. This was because the town needed a solid religious building, and its troubled history prompted it to locate it within the castle. There had previously been a well-equipped wooden church in Budzanów. According to legend, the first of its kind was supposed to stand here as early as the 14th century, but official documents confirm the existence of a Roman Catholic temple only shortly before 1600.

Unfortunately, at the end of the 18th century, the church at the castle was robbed and in 1812 closed by the Russian authorities, who turned it into a military warehouse. Services were moved to a local wooden chapel at this time. In 1817, the parish regained the building. It was then repaired and, over the years, the missing elements were retrofitted.

At the beginning of the 18th century the new owner of Budzanów was Michał Bobrowski, who refused to recognise the guild rights, which led to numerous lawsuits, but in 1817 his heirs restored everything to its proper state. At the beginning of the 19th century the village belonged to the Skarżyński family, in the middle of the century to Aleksander Perekadłowski, and towards the end of the century to the Baworowskis. At that time, such villages as Łaskowce, Skomorosze, Wierzbowiec and Zwiniacz came under the Budzanów parish.

In 1838, the church was consecrated. Its further fate until the First World War is not known. In 1846, thanks to the efforts of parish priest Michal Kulczycki, a convent of the Sisters of Mercy was placed in the castle premises, who ran a school and a hospital on the premises. In 1917 a grenade damaged part of the roof and vaulting of the church. In 1923, another repair was carried out and masses began to be held in the building again. The repairs were not complete, however, and the castle itself, on which the church was located, was still damaged. Between 1927 and 1928, its partial reconstruction was carried out.

In the interwar period Budzanów was a noticeably developed town, with two hotels, two restaurants, a post office with telephone and two credit institutions, not to mention valuable historical monuments, including manor houses from the 18th century. At Budzanow parish there were then: Catholic Men's and Women's Youth Associations, Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, Rosary Confraternity and Living Rosary Association.

Unfortunately, the Second World War brought unrest and terror. First, in 1941, by order of the German authorities, the bells were removed and buried. However, the real trouble did not begin until the end of the war. In 1944, Budzanów was repeatedly attacked by the UPA.

Between 1948 and 1951, a hospital was organised on the grounds of the entire castle, which was connected with numerous devastations of the monument. The local Roman Catholic community did not manage to recover the entire church until 1997. In the first instance, attempts were made to recover the former structure of the church interior. However, renovations and modernisations were still carried out many years later.

Architecture

The unusual location of the church, which is incorporated into the structure of the castle, makes it impossible to treat it as an independent building. Rather, it should be regarded as a curiosity, resulting from a need justified by history. As Kinga Blaschke writes in her study of the temple, the simple architectural forms do not warrant the hypothesis of the building's authorship.

The castle, of which the Budzanów church is a part, is located on a high hill in the north-western part of the village. The church itself is located in the western wing of the building. It is a stone-built and plastered building. It consists of a two-bay nave and a narrower single-bay rounded chancel facing south. The north side of the nave is divided into a porch (on the ground floor) and a choir (on the first floor). A vestry and vicarage adjoin the chancel to the east.

The façade is arranged on the south-west elevation of the north-west wing of the castle. It is single-axis, single-storey, with a high screen finial. Its corners are framed by pairs of slender pilasters and lisens supporting the cornice. On the axis of the finial is a rectangular niche closed with an overhanging arch. Within it is a sculpture of the Immaculate Mother of God. Above this is a bas-relief with the Eye of Providence. The other facades are closed with a profiled cornice. In turn, the apse and chancel elevations are supported on a massive stone plinth, which on the south side retains the original outline of the castle wing. The nave and chancel were covered with gable roofs. The signature turret is clad in sheet metal. It is crowned with a pyramidal canopy with a knop and cross.

The interior walls have no articulation. The nave and presbytery are closed with cross vaults. Above the apse is a conch with a lunette, which is an ornate ceiling resembling a three-dimensional shell with a circular window at the very top that illuminates the altar. The outer porch, located in the north wing of the castle, (like the sacristy) uses a cross vault.

The windows in the side walls are rectangular in shape. On the other hand, an oval window in a rectangular recess was placed in the axis of the apse. The entrance openings are also rectangular. The choir, open to the nave section, communicates with the main room through three semicircular arcades.

The most important elements of the church furnishings include the sculptures of the Church Fathers, most probably from the workshop of Johann Georg Pinsel.

Name: Parish Church of the Elevation of the Cross in Budzanów

Current name: Same as above.

Division: architecture

Location: Ukraine, district: Ternopil, town: Budzanów

Author: Unknown

Date of construction: 17th-18th century

Technical data: Brick object forming part of the castle.