Historical outline

The village is located 15 kilometres south of Trembowla. Yaniv Trembowel, during Soviet times, was called "Ivankivtsy" and later "Dołyna". The earliest records of the village date back to the 16th century, although traces of Palaeolithic settlement were discovered here in 1928, and in the 1980s, remnants of the Chernihiv culture from the beginning of our era.

The town was founded on the territory of the village of Dołhe. Among the owners mentioned are: Katarzyna Lichanska, the Bojarski family, Stanisław Lanckoroński, the Golskis (from Zamiechów) (17th century), the Bogusz family of the Półkozic coat of arms and the Skarbeks (18th century). Crafts developed in Janów. As many as thirteen professions were active in the town, including blacksmiths, bricklayers, carpenters, painters, stelmakers, weavers, tailors, furriers, shoemakers, millers, bakers, butchers, and horsemen. Unfortunately, at the height of the 17th century, the town suffered from invasions by Turks, Tatars and Cossacks. In the 18th century, a whole series of misfortunes befell Janów Trembowel. First the town was struck by a plague, then there was the loss of its municipal rights, and then a great fire.

In the first half of the 19th century the Janów estate was purchased by Count Adam Baworowski. He bequeathed the estate to his daughter as dowry. Subsequent owners included the Łosi family.

The parish in the village was established in 1611, and the founders were Jan and Zofia Golscy of Zamiechów. It was then that the first wooden church was erected. A quarter of a century later, a hospital was also built next to the parish church, financed by Zofia of Zamiechów. The institution developed thanks to the charity of the later owners of Janov Trembowel.

Historical sources are very sparse in detail about the origins of the brick church. It is known that the idea arose as early as the 17th century, when Zofia of Zamiechów designated 800 zlotys a year in her will to carry out the construction, which in time proved to be an insufficient sum, so the whole undertaking was significantly delayed. Further history is also known in a fragmentary way. There are annotations relating to the finalisation of certain parts of the building and the fitting out of further essential elements, but apart from sparse traces, little is known. The earliest discovered inventory dates from the late 18th century and reveals the very good condition of the church.

By the end of the 19th century, the church was well equipped. There is information about five altars, including the main altar, which was transferred from the Basilian monastery in Podgórzany.

The First World War spared the building, although its very metrics necessitated repairs. In the interwar period, extensive work was carried out, which included replacing the floor, plastering the outside and inside, replacing the windows, roofing and the bell turret. The bell tower was also renovated in 1930.

Unfortunately, the Second World War proved to be a time of massive unrest. Attacks by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army forced the vicar, Father Emil Gajewski, to leave. Father Stefanicki managed to save some of the furnishings and some were dispersed.

During the domination of the USSR, the church was turned into a grain warehouse. In 1991, the building was taken over by the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate. The temple was renovated and the interior was covered with paintings.

Architecture

The building is located within the fortifications of the castle, the ruins of which stand on a picturesque hill. It is built on the ground plan of a Latin cross, with a three-bay nave and a single-bay, triangular chancel facing east (implicitly, towards Jerusalem). The sacristy, attached to the altar section, is built on a square plan. The transverse arm is a pair of chapels (octagonal in plan) attached to the nave bay. At the front is a massive tower with a square ground plan. It contains a porch in the ground floor and a music choir in the upper storey. A spiral stair turret is located in the corner between the tower and the nave.

The exterior elevations are set on a plinth. All the corners are framed with Tuscan pilasters, with the exception of the sacristy. In this module, the pilasters were replaced by lisens. The front was almost entirely obscured by the aforementioned tower. All facades were closed with a profiled cornice of similar height. Only on the façade was the cornice used to separate the storeys horizontally.

The nave and the porch are covered with gable roofs. Similar roofs are used in the altar area and the chapels, except that in these sections they change to multi-slope. The sacristy, meanwhile, is covered with a gable roof. A mansard roof (i.e. a kind of broken roof) was used on the tower, from which a cupola with a knop and cross rises. At the intersection of the nave and chapels, there is a signature turret reminiscent of the tower at the front, but in a reduced version.

The articulation of the internal walls is carried out by flat pilasters with capitals (ornamental finials) formed from sections of the beam. The low cornice also draws attention. The nave section is closed with a cross vault, the altar section with a cross vault, which turns into a lunette above the closure. Another characteristic feature is the winged angel heads, appearing as decorative elements under the profiled cornice. A lunette vault is used in the chapels, and a cross vault in the porch, above the choir and in the sacristy. The windows in the building are narrow, rectangular and closed with a semicircle, in deep bifolds on the interior side. A circular window is present in the altar part.

As Jan K. Ostrowski writes in his study of the building, the temple has been preserved in good condition, but without its former furnishings. Of the objects transported to Poland, we managed to find a sculpture depicting the image of the Risen Christ, an altar cross, a chasuble and two flags in the church in Smolno Wielkie (Lubuskie Province), a monstrance in the church in Tuczno and a reliquary in the church in Potok Jaworski.

The most important elements associated with the formerly very rich furnishings of the church included:

• The main altar with images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, St. Anne, the Holy Trinity and sculptures depicting images of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Teresa of the Child Jesus, dated 1928;
• Side altar with a painting depicting the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa;
• Side altar with a painting depicting the image of St Joseph;
• Wooden pulpit by Jan Wojtowicz dated 1926.

Located in the line of the wall to the south of the church, the bell tower, dated 1825, has survived to the present day.

According to Ostrowsky, "about 107 gothic churches with a trefoil chancel and transept and more or less marked gothic features have survived in Podolia. 17th century architecture there, although the origin of their type and workshop-stylistic features has not been fully explained."