Historical outline

The village lies 7 km north-east of the town of Trembowla. A stream with the same name, namely Boryczówka, flows through it. The history of the village is not fully researched, and at times it is quite blurred by the passing of time and not very clear sources. What is known for sure is that it appears in the annals for the first time on 30 XI 1576, when King Stefan Batory took over Boryczówka with a document defining the boundaries of the land belonging to Trembowla. Among the owners of the estate, at the height of the 17th century, are mentioned, among others: Jakub Brożman and Jakub Klimowski. Later Boryczówka belonged to the Trembowel starosty, which handed over a significant part of the village to the Carmelite monastery in Trembowla, as later sources also mention other owners of the village. However, it is known for sure that the monks took care of the granted property until the Second World War.

Initially Boryczówka belonged to the parish of Trembowla, but in 1925 it was elevated to the status of an independent parish. The local religious building in question was built and consecrated in 1907. It was originally a chapel, but two years later it was extended and transformed into a church. The distinctive bell tower-gate, however, was not erected until 1934 thanks to the marriage of Martin and Anna Tabak.

The Second World War was a worrying time for Boryczówka. When attacks on Poles by Ukrainians began, the village heroically fended them off. Therefore, between July 1943 and the end of 1944, Bandera and SS-Galizien soldiers murdered ten Poles, which is not an overwhelming number in comparative terms. Most of the compatriots who remained alive were displaced to western Poland.

After the war, the church was abandoned and the Soviets turned it into a kolkhoz warehouse. In 1985, renovation began to make it into an Orthodox church. In 1992, the building was taken over by the Greek Catholic Church. Four years later, the interior was renovated and new furnishings were made.

Interestingly, until the 1930s, the Mularczyk family lived in Boryczówka, from which descend, among others, such figures as Andrzej Mularczyk (writer, editor and scriptwriter) and Roman Bratny (writer, poet, publicist). To this day, in Konstancin-Jeziorna near Warsaw, stands a recently renovated modernist villa that belonged to the Mularczyk family and for many years bore the name derived from this, now Ukrainian, village. Mularczyk has portrayed the village in several of his scenarios, and in any case strongly alluded to certain memories. This is particularly noticeable in the popular series of films in the 'Sami swoi' series.

Architecture

From an architectural point of view, the building in Boryczówka is a structure combining simplified neo-Gothic with some modern elements. However, as Rafał Quirini-Popławski writes in his study of the building, "The modesty of the building does not allow an attempt to attribute its design."

The temple is located on a small hill in the northern part of the village. The chancel faces south-west. The building was constructed on the basis of a cruciform plan. From the outside it is a brick building, inside the walls are plastered.

The walls are primarily built of irregular but carefully laid stone blocks. Low buttresses have been added to the corners. The façade and the front walls of the transept are single-axis, closed with triangular gables supported by ornamental brackets called "crocuses". The simple in form façade is an indistinct echo of Neo-Gothic, mainly through the shape of the entrance door and the window above it (a rectangle ending in a sharp arch).

The roofs of the nave and transept arms are gabled. In contrast, there is a gabled roof transitioning to a multi-gabled roof over the chancel. Gabled roofs are used over the annexes. All are covered with sheet metal. Originally, the turret was an openwork tower supported by low columns and topped by a pyramidal roof with a knop and cross.

Inside, the attention is drawn to the pointed arcades separating the individual areas. Cross vaults are used in the nave and transept, and in the presbytery there is a conch with lunette, i.e. an ornate ceiling resembling a "shell", topped by a round window, located in the very top, which acts as a natural light for the altar area.

The windows in the church are rectangular and end in a sharp arch. In the chancel, on the other hand, there is a rectangular window opening. On the other side there is a wooden music choir, which is accessed via a staircase in the north-west corner.

Highlights associated with the furnishings and surrounds of the building include:

• An early 20th century wooden pulpit;
• Paintings of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (oil on canvas), dating to the early 20th century;
• A stone retaining wall surrounding the church grounds;
• Bell with inscription: "FOUNDERS | MARCIN TABAKA | AND HIS WIFE | 1933";
• The characteristic bell tower-gate, located on the axis of the church facade. It is a stone-built, two-storey structure with a rectangular stone plaque on the west façade bearing the inscription "FUNDERS | on the 50th anniversary of the nuptials | MARCIN iANNA | TABAKA | 1934".

The present condition of the building is described as good. The renovation carried out in the 1990s involved not only the repair of elements that needed interference, but also the architectural adaptation of the church towards the aesthetics of eastern religious buildings. Thus, for example, the turret was replaced with a signature tower.

Name: Parish Church of St. Adalbert in Boryczówka

Current name: Church of the Nativity of the Holy Mother of God in Boryczówka

Division: architecture

Localization: Ukraine, district: Ternopil, locality: Boryczówka

Author: Unknown

Date of construction: 1907-1909 r.

Technical data: Stone masonry object