The history of the Catholic temple, erected by Poles between 1869 and 1877 in the capital of Zaporozhye, was not and is not easy. Its construction encountered a number of difficulties. Its later history was marked by tragic events. Today, this monument of sacred architecture is located in a city constantly shelled by Moscow rockets and missiles.

From Yekaterinoslav to the Dnieper - a city with many names

Following the wars with Ottoman Turkey in the second half of the 18th century. Russia annexed vast areas north of the Black Sea and the Crimean Khanate, referred to as Novorossiya. The gubernatorial centre of the recently conquered areas was named Yekatarinoslav in honour of its founder, Tsarina Catherine II. It was founded twice. The first location (1775) proved unsuccessful. The second occurred in 1784 at the mouth of the Samara River into the Dnieper. It was in the area where the fortress of the Republic - Kudak - had been erected 150 years earlier. The territory belonged to the historic Zaporozhian Sicha, brutally liquidated by a decision of the tsarist authorities in 1775.

At the will of her reluctant mother's successor, Paul I, the city's name was briefly (1796-1802) changed to Novorossiysk. After the final seizure of Ukraine by Bolshevik Russia (1926), Yekatarinoslav was renamed Dnipropetrovsk (in honour of Ukrainian communist activist Hryhoriy Petrovsky).

In 2016, by a decision of the Ukrainian parliament, the city was renamed Dnipro (ukr. Dnipro). Regardless of everything, the city acted as the centre of Russian power in the historic Zaporizhia and the Black Sea steppes for the first two hundred years of its existence.

Origins of St. Joseph's Church in Dnipro

For the first time, the Catholic community of Yekaterinoslav applied to the authorities for permission to build a church in 1842. The request was renewed ten years later, after the Catholic diocese of Tiraspol (initially with its capital in Kherson) had been erected.

It was not until 4 September 1859 that the first Ordinary of Tiraspol, Bishop Ferdinand Kahn, received permission from the Foreign Religious Spiritual Affairs Department of the Ministry of the Interior to build a Roman Catholic temple in the city.

The work of three authors

The author of the first design for the church, which was not very successful and ultimately not realised, was Albert Brodniсki (1830-after 1875). He came from an aristocratic family of Polish origin from Volhynia, was a graduate of the St Petersburg Technological Institute and served as a gubernial architect in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate from 1865-1875. He designed numerous buildings in the city and on the territory of the gubernia. His architectural activity in Yekaterinoslav was continued by his son, Leonid.

The temple was built according to a revised design by the Russian architect, Peter Merkulov (1836-1901), a member of the Technical and Construction Committee of the Ministry of the Interior.

The reconstruction of the church was carried out by Stanislav Antoni Charmanski (1861-1917?), a representative of the Polish dynasty of architects in Yekaterinoslav, son of Edward Julian (1836-1910) gubernial architect (1875-1904) and younger brother of Marian Zdzislaw (1859-1925), an architect active in Novocherkassk and Kharkov. From the 1890s until October 1914. Stanislav Kharmanski was a Yekaterinoslav provincial engineer.

Design by Albert Brodnicki

For the construction of the church, a plot of land was acquired on the main street of the city - Yekaterinsky Prospect (now Dmytro Yavornytsky Prospect), on the grounds of the then city garden. The initial design of the church envisaged the construction of a small (due to the small community of Catholics of mainly Polish and German nationality), single-aisle church in neo-Gothic style. The façade facing the prospectus, flanked by two tall towers, featured a richly decorated portal. Above it was a figure of an angel with a cross. The nave was enclosed by a large presbytery in the form of a three-sided apse, with light coming in through pointed windows. A high, openwork tower was planned above the chancel. Brodnicki's design was not approved by the Technical and Construction Committee of the Ministry of the Interior. More important than criticism of the planned detailed architectural solutions were serious doubts about the strength of the building's structure.

Piotr Mierkulov's design

As a result, Albert Brodnicki's design was significantly redrafted by a member of the same committee, Piotr Merkulov, an architect-official with many years of experience in St Petersburg offices. The width of the building was slightly increased, and the height of the nave and towers reduced (although their overall height including spires remained unchanged). The dominant feature of the much simplified façade decoration was a circular window decorated with a masquerade. The new design was approved on 16 July 1869 by the Ministry of the Interior in St Petersburg. The construction of the church was completed in 1877.

St. Joseph's Church in the urban space of the capital Zaporizhia

For the architecture of provincial Ekaterinoslav at the time, the architecture of the newly erected St Joseph's Church was quite unusual. Among the highest two-storey buildings grew a massive building, whose two massive, soaring towers were visible from several quarters away. The interior of the church was decorated with wall paintings.

From the beginning, the church became the centre of life for the Polish community and also attracted local Catholics of other nationalities. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the parish community numbered almost 10,000 people (about 5% of the city's population at the time). To a large extent, these were specialists in the metallurgical industry, employed in the Krzyworoski Iron Ore Basin, which was then undergoing dynamic development. Poles were the largest group among them.

The rapid increase in the number of parishioners led to the decision to extend the church. The architect Stanisław Charmański prepared an extension project on 22 February 1900, which was approved by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. As a result, the building was extended by adding side aisles, and the presbytery was also expanded. The reconstruction was finally completed in 1910, although the church was consecrated as early as 1905 by Tiraspol Bishop Josef Alois Kessler.

Tragic fate of the church in the Soviet era

The Dnepropetrovsk church was closed down in 1928. Initially, it housed a glass workshop, and in the mid-1930s it was transformed into an exhibition hall, then converted into a sports hall. The crosses on the church were removed, but the external appearance of the building remained virtually unchanged.

According to some accounts, in the autumn of 1937 the parish priest, Fr Wincenty Skwirecki, was shot in the courtyard in front of the church. A year later, the Soviet authorities banned Catholics from gathering in the church for prayers. The last priest ministering in the Dnepropetrovsk parish at the time, Fr Jacob Rosenbach, was sent to a gulag on the Solovetsky Islands, where he died a martyr's death (1938).

In 1942, the Dnepropetrovsk church was briefly restored to worship by Italian troops stationed in the city. Military chaplains ministered in the church. Thanks to the efforts of one of them, Fr Pietro Leoni, among other things, the organ was repaired.

In 1948, the badly damaged church was taken over by the municipal authorities. A major reconstruction in 1950 drastically changed its appearance, especially the façade. Over the following decades, the church housed a sports hall, a library and a regional sports lottery board.

St. Joseph's Church today

The first dozen years or so after Ukrainian independence brought no change in the situation. Despite the registration of the parish (1991), the historic St Joseph's Church building remained municipal property. Through mysterious transactions, it then ended up in the hands of private business. It was not until the summer of 2009, after a protracted court battle, that the Catholic parish regained ownership of the church building.

On 11 October 2014, the reconecration of the restored church took place, which was restored to its original architectural form. In 2019, a statue of Pope John Paul II was erected in front of the church. Nowadays, the church is also an important place on the cultural map of Dnipro city, various cultural events are held here, especially organ and chamber music concerts.