Historical outline

The village lies 12 kilometres to the east of the much larger Trembowla. The earliest historical mention of Hleszczava dates back to the 16th century, but it is worth noting that there is a cemetery of the Chernihiv culture from the 3rd-4th centuries AD. Little is known about the fate of the village. Information about the owners of the estate comes from the 19th century, when Hleszczawa was ruled by Franciszek Korytkowski. Later the estate belonged to the Komarnicki family, then to Zdzisław Ujejski and Bronisław Horodyski. In the early 20th century the village was administered by the Ujejski and Horodyski families, and in the inter-war period by Maria Ujejska and Michał Szotarski.

In the early years of the 20th century, the inhabitants of Hleszczawa made efforts to build a religious building in the village. The land for its construction was donated by a local farmer, Michał Kusztra. Most of the construction work was done by the future parishioners. In 1908 the building was almost completed. It was then that the consecration took place. According to some sources, the building was finished and decently equipped in 1913.

At first Hleszczava was under the parish of Trembowel, later under the parish of Ivansk Trembowel. In 1929, the villagers sent a request to the consistory to create an independent unit in the village. Paradoxically, the parish was erected almost on the eve of the Second World War, i.e. in 1938, and included Hleszczawa, Stadnica and Zofiówka.

Just before the end of the Second World War, the terror of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army reached unprecedented levels. The last parish priest, Father Kazimierz Białowąs, lived in Trembowla, from where he commuted to his parish. Easter 1944 is the most prominent moment in this thread. The criminals attacked the village and Father Białowąs hid with several people in the cellar of the vicarage. The Ukrainians threw grenades into it and set the vicarage on fire. The wounded parish priest was the only one to survive and took refuge in Trembowla. In total, 123 Poles were killed here by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Those who survived left the village in 1945 for the Western Territories. The Soviets used the church as a grain store for the local kolkhoz. The building continued to be used in this way after the collapse of the USSR. However, in 1992 the roof over the nave collapsed. The tower, which used to be at the front, also does not exist today (in its full shape).

Achitecture

The building is located in the south-western part of the village. It consists of a three-bay nave and a lower and narrower north-facing chancel, which is closed with a straight wall. Next to the altar area is the sacristy.

In the past, a rectangular tower was attached to the front of the nave. Today only part of it remains. There is a porch on the ground floor and a choir on the first floor. The tower is flanked by low annexes with a storeroom and staircase. Nowadays this part of the building has lost its gable with the helmet. The tallest part, which no longer exists, consisted of a sheet metal roof, a wooden openwork superstructure with arcades and a conical helmet covered with a square-shaped tin shell. The whole was crowned with a knob with a double cross. The fragment of the tower preserved to our times is the porch and choir. On the axis of the façade is the entrance opening, above it a closed semicircular rectangular window and a circular window.

The external elevations (except for the tower) are placed on a plinth and closed with a profiled cornice. The internal articulation of the nave was carried out with pilasters on plinths, which were supported by the turrets of a pointed pseudo-column vault. The same vault was located in the altar area. The annexes, in turn, were covered with ceilings. The icicle arcade and the arcade between the nave and the choir are pointed arches. A segmental arcade is used between the nave and the porch.

Apart from the circular windows in the front and in the presbytery, the building is dominated by rectangular openings, closed with a semicircle and embellished on both sides. On one of the walls, there was a painting depicting the Assumption of the Virgin Mary surrounded by angels. Unfortunately, there is no information about its current state.

As Kinga Blaschke writes in her study of the building, the church is in a state of disrepair. Although the perimeter walls have been preserved, the roofs over the nave and the vaults are missing. No furnishings have survived on the site either.

Name: Parish Church in Hleszczava

Current name: Same as above.

Section: Architecture

Location: Ukraine, district: Ternopil , locality: Hleszczava

Author: project based on the works of Tadeusz Obmiński

Date of construction: 1908 r.

Technical data: Brick building