Historical outline

Trembowla is situated on the Gniezna River, a tributary of the Seret. It is one of the oldest administrative units of the region. The first mention of this town dates back to the 11th century!

Over the centuries, the town has gone through various stages of development. One of the moments of splendour, in a historical perspective, was during the reign of the Jagiellonian dynasty. It started with Władysław Jagiełło granting the town Magdeburg rights. The king also founded two wooden churches in Trembowla. The first was erected on the left side of the river. It was built at the end of the 14th century. The second (already a parish church and on the right bank of the Gniezno) was erected in the 1520s. The right-bank building was given the invocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Historical sources do not provide much information about this temple. It was situated under the castle and was most probably made of wood, which, in the uncertain times of repeated invasions, did not guarantee a very long survival in good condition.

The parish, over the years, included more and more villages, although by the end of the 18th century it had lost its central church building. The old, wooden and probably repeatedly repaired temple simply did not survive. In 1784, services were moved to the Carmelite church. It took until the 20th century for a new brick church to be built!

In 1905, efforts to build a new church began. Unfortunately, there were numerous problems on many levels, including the design level. Finally, in the 1920s, the process began, but it must be emphasised that it was done with aplomb and at an impressive pace.

As Marcin Biernat writes in his study of the building, the best available materials were used in the construction, including various types of sandstone, noble seasoned oak wood and quality roofing sheet, among others. In 1927, the interior was finished and the consecration took place a year later.

During the Second World War, many human dramas took place in and around Trembowla. The Germans organised a ghetto here for the Jews, most of whom (about 2,600) were murdered.

Towards the end of the global conflict, at a time of terror by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), Trembowla was a refuge for thousands of local Poles. The town was not directly attacked, but twenty people were killed by the Ukrainians anyway. The Polish population left Trembowla in 1945.

During the Soviet domination, the Soviets arranged a grain warehouse in the church and later a community centre. In 1992, the building was returned to the Roman Catholic community, which had been registered a year earlier. Today, it is one of the symbols of a bygone era and at the same time one of the most significant religious buildings in the region.

It is worth noting that there was also a Dominican monastery of St Nicholas in the town. Historical sources share very scanty information about this, dating the existence of the building to the 15th-16th centuries. It was destroyed by Turkish and Tartar invasions so severely that no decision was made to rebuild it.

In the very extensive area of the Tremblovsk parish there were (at different times in history) numerous chapels, most of which were converted into parish churches. Examples include buildings in such places as Boryczówka, Hleszczawa, Iwanówka, Krowinka, Łoszniów, Ostrowczyk, and Semenów.

It is also worth noting that in the interwar period numerous Catholic organisations were active in Trembowla, such as : Catholic Action, Catholic Associations of Husbands, Men's and Women's Youth, Rosary Brotherhood, Living Rosary Association and the Third Order of St. Francis.

Architecture

The building is located in the city centre. The presbytery faces north-east. The main part was placed on separate foundations and the towers on separate foundations. The foundations used were of stone, reinforced with iron-concrete footings. The walls were built of brick (reinforced with ferro-concrete), and some structural and decorative elements (including the inter-nave columns) were made of stone. Concrete was used for other parts.

The building consists of a three-nave, nine-bay basilica-type body. The main nave is wider than the side naves. The altar part (square in plan, closed with a semicircular apse) is slightly narrower than it and is inscribed between the extensions of the side aisles, which house the sacristy and the treasury. The latter parts are also closed with semicircular apses.

At the front (south-west) of the body is an imposing massif, containing in the ground floor an eye-catching columnar portico covered by a coffered ceiling, flanked by two vestibules. On the first floor there is a music choir with similar vestibules on the sides. Closer to the main body of the building are two (formerly five-storey, now three-storey) towers on a square plan. These extend beyond the body of the building and conceal the spiral staircases. In front of the façade is a spacious atrium with a trapezoidal ground plan.

The façade is wider than the body, two-storey and closed with a beam. The openings of the main entrance are framed in profiled surrounds. On the sides are niches with statues of St Peter and St Paul, dated 1880. Above the portico is a band of five tall windows, which are flanked by composite pilasters separated by identical columns. On the sides, in turn, small rectangular windows closed with a semicircle (at the bottom) and rectangular windows on the second storey are placed in modules located on the extension of the side aisles. The façade is crowned by a triangular gable now flanked by sculptures of angels set on plinths.

The towers are not very soaring. Their height protrudes slightly above the façade. This effect has been exacerbated in modern times by, among other things, the absence of the tent roofs that once covered these parts. The corners of the towers are framed by narrow lisens. The ground and second storeys have a window arrangement similar to that of the portico. The third storey has rectangular windows and the fifth storey has a triforium with four columns. The towers were closed with a cornice.

As Marcin Biernat writes in his study of the building, the other elevations have no articulated elements apart from the crowning cornices. The elevation of the altar part was closed with a low triangular gable, and the elevations of the side aisles with similar half-gables.

The nave and altar section are covered by a gable roof with an additional slope at the front. Pulpit roofs were used over the side aisles, with half conical roofs over the apses. Today the roofs of the towers are flat. Formerly, these parts were covered with tent roofs. All slopes were covered with sheet metal.

The naves are separated by Ionic columns, which support a beam that circles the interior of the nave and altar area. This beam forms the parapet of the choir and on the other side supports a semicircular arcade, which is further reinforced by wall pillars. The main body is covered with coffered ceilings, the chancel with a cross vault, the apse with an open conch, and the sacristy and treasury with a cross vault. Ceilings were used in the other parts. The floor is concrete.

The windows in the building are mainly rectangular and closed with a semicircle (of different sizes). Wide rectangular windows closed with a section are used in the side walls. The remaining windows are rectangular.

The most important elements related to the furnishings, surroundings and decoration of the building include or belonged to:

• Atrium on trapezoidal plan, located in front of the church;
• The entrance gate, flanked by pilasters and divided by columns into three flights;
• Main altar in the form of a canopy composed of four marble Ionic columns supporting a beam;
• Stone memorial plaque, with inscription: D(EO) O(PTIMO) M(AXIMO) | THIS PARISH CHURCH | EXHIBITED TO GOD'S GLORY AND THE WELFARE OF SONS | IN THE SUMMER OF 1924-1928 | Consecrated on 15 June 1928 | by the Most Reverend Ordinary of Lviv | Archbishop BOLESŁAW TWARDOWSKI | built by the offering of the Trembowel parish | at the expense of half of its property | with the efforts of the parish priest Fr. Eustachy Yelovitskiy.

At present, the building is in good technical condition, except for some missing or altered elements, such as the fourth and fifth storeys of the towers, the shape of the windows in the façade, and the lack of a wall closing the atrium. The original furnishings are also missing from the site, the fate of which is unknown.

In his study of the building, Marcin Biernat writes:

"The genesis of the architecture of the Trembowel church is complex from both a historical and stylistic point of view. According to the sources [przyp. ed] (...) the originator of the "early Christian" form of the church was the parish priest of Trembowel, who "wishing to enchant into stone and build a fortress and a witness of Latin and Polish culture on the borders of the eastern barbaria on the borders of the Republic of Poland, took the happy idea of drawing on the models of the old, classical, Roman basilicas, and invited Prof. Bohusz-Szyszka to draw up the plan."

Name: Parish Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Trembowla

Name currently in use: a.s.

Section: architecture

Location: Ukraine, district: Ternopil, town: Trembowla

Author: Adolf Szyszko-Bochusz

Date of construction: 1907 / Consecration 1907.

Technical data: Object made of brick and reinforced concrete and various types of selected sandstone