In the centre of Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, a country with Muslim traditions, the attention is drawn to an object that clearly derives from the world of Latin culture. It is a monumental neo-Gothic building - the Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which has served and continues to serve all Catholics regardless of nationality. It is called Polish because it was built with the participation of Poles, mainly victims of the Russian empire - prisoners of war. Thanks to the work of the Franciscans from the Krakow Province, it was revived in the 1990s and remains a lively pastoral and cultural centre to this day.

Efforts for a church in Turkestan
At the end of the 19th century, in the territory of Turkestan, an area of Central Asia then belonging to Russia, according to the census, the number of Catholics exceeded 11,000. They were mainly Poles, Germans, Lithuanians and people of other nationalities. Despite this large number of believers, there was not a single Catholic temple functioning in this vast area until the beginning of the 20th century, nor were there any permanently working priests. All efforts to change this state of affairs were refused by the Tsarist authorities. It was only in 1898 that Fr Justyn Bonaventura Pranajtis (1861-1917) arrived in Tashkent, following a decision by Mogilev Archbishop Simon Martin Kozlowski (1819-1899). He was a Lithuanian from Suzdal Governorate, professor, theologian (discredited by his infamous involvement in the trial of Menachem Beilis, accused of ritual murder by the Russian authorities in 1913). Father Pranaytis was appointed pastor of Tashkent and all of Turkestan. During his ten years of work he created a parish network. In addition to Tashkent, four branch churches were established in: Ashgabat, Fergana, Kyzyl-Arwat (station of the Trans-Caspian Iron Railway) and Samarkand, and in time also in Bukhara.

Beginnings of the temple in Tashkent
In Tashkent, Fr Pranajtis began holding regular services in a rented room from October 1902. At the same time, he led energetic efforts to acquire a plot of land for the construction of a church. In 1904, he received permission from the authorities to hold a fundraising event for this purpose. The efforts, which lasted several months, were successful. A plot of 2370 square metres on a hill on the bank of the Salar canal was purchased. On the feast of Corpus Christi, 14 June 1905, the site for the future church was consecrated. In the same year, a vicarage was built to temporarily house the church.

Western models in church design
Construction work, which began in 1912, did not start in earnest until the autumn of 1914, due to the ongoing First World War. Tens of thousands of prisoners of war and displaced persons from Europe were sent to Turkestan. Among them were many engineers, architects, sculptors, as well as stonemasons, carpenters and other highly skilled craftsmen. The majority of the workers on the temple construction site from then on were Poles and Austrians. There was a significant acceleration of the work. The participation of European specialists brought up on Western Gothic models influenced the final shape of the building. The co-author of the adopted version of the project was Ludwik Panczakiewicz (1873-1935), a Polish architect interned in Tashkent since 1914 (as an Austro-Hungarian subject), who had studied in St Petersburg, was a close associate of Józef Pius Dziekoński and had already completed numerous projects in Warsaw.

Construction work
Construction began on a three-nave building on a Latin cross plan, measuring 41 x 31 m and 25 m high. It was enclosed on the south side by a rectangular chancel, and the main façade was to be decorated with a rosette, characteristic of the Gothic, and ornamental relief on the triangular gable. Thanks to Western engineers, a building material hitherto unknown in Asia - cinder concrete - was used for the construction. Special reinforcements were used due to the seismic risk.

By mid-May 1916, the walls of the church were being erected and the monumental staircase with balustrade and pedestals for the sculpture ensemble were ready. Statues of the four evangelists were to be an important part of the composition of the main façade. The four-metre-high statue of Christ, which was to crown the main entrance, and the bas-relief "Entombment", measuring 200 x 160 cm and intended for the interior of the church, also began to be created at this time. However, the intensive work did not last long. When the Bolshevik coup took place in Russia, construction of the upper church was halted. The lower chapel still served the faithful for some time.

Closure of the church
In 1925, the Soviet authorities issued a decision to close the church and confiscated the parish's movable property. They also sealed the church library and also tried to take over the vicarage building. Sunday masses were interrupted. After the final liquidation of the parish, the unfinished church was used for various, far from sacred, purposes.

Probably in the 1950s, all the sculptures and other decorative elements that adorned the temple disappeared. Eventually, the building was abandoned and left to the mercy of fate.

It was not until the 1970s that the authorities of the Uzbek SSR took an interest in the large, neglected building in the city centre. In 1976, a decision was made that the building needed to be reconstructed, and four years later a project was approved to convert it into an organ music hall. Inventory and documentation work began for the reconstruction of the church, formally recognised as a monument in 1981. However, the construction and reconstruction work progressed very slowly and was eventually interrupted due to lack of funds.

Revival of the temple
The breakthrough came in 1990, when a Roman Catholic parish resumed its activities in Tashkent. In 1992, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan agreed to reconstruct the church. The work was efficiently directed by the Franciscan Fr Krzysztof Kukułka OFM Conv, parish priest of Tashkent. In 1997, he became superior of the newly established Mission "sui iuris", which covered the whole of Uzbekistan.

Compared to the original project, the design was significantly altered, including raising the nave to better illuminate the interior, restoring the upper sections of the narthex (porch), which were topped with crosses. The restoration of the sculptures on the façade was abandoned for financial reasons. Instead, the terraces surrounding the church on both sides were considerably enlarged and the space underneath was used, among other things, for a parish hall. The lower church was completed first, allowing services to be held. The church was consecrated on 22 October 2000. Five years later it was elevated to the status of cathedral of the Apostolic Administration of Uzbekistan.

Memorial plaque in honour of Tadeusz Kosciuszko
Taking advantage of the easing of the political course after the February Revolution of 1917, the Polish community held celebrations of holidays and anniversaries in Tashkent. On the occasion of the centenary of Tadeusz Kosciuszko's death, in October 1917, a commemorative plaque, designed by Ludwik Panczakiewicz, was set into the outer wall of the church's transept, which reads:

TO TADEUSZKO KOŚCIUSZKO/ CHIEF OF THE NATION IN 1794/ DEFENDER OF EQUALITY OF STATES/ FIGHTER FOR FREEDOM IN TWO HEMISPHERES/ THIS PLAQUE IN HONOUR/ OF THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS DEATH/ IN THE FOURTH YEAR OF THE WORLD WAR/ ON THE EVE OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE FATHERLAND/ HIS COMPATRIOTS FROM THREE PARTITIONS ERECTED/ ON 15 OCTOBER 1917.

. A cartouche with an eagle and the coats of arms of Warsaw, Cracow and Poznań were placed on the frame filled with stylised floral ornamentation. Above the emblem was a banner with the inscription "God Save Poland". The plaque was destroyed in Soviet times. Only the frame partially survived, as well as the frame of the second plaque placed symmetrically on the opposite side of the transept. Plans to reconstruct them have not been realised.

To the memory of soldiers of the Polish Army in the East
In 2001, a monument was erected on the church grounds, thanks to the efforts of the Council for the Protection of Remembrance of Struggle and Martyrdom, in memory of thousands of Poles - soldiers of the Polish Army in the East under the command of General Władysław Anders, and civilians, former prisoners of war, exiles and prisoners of Soviet gulags who died in 1942 and were buried in Uzbek soil.

The Polonica Institute would like to thank Fr. Michał Gruszka OFM Conv, pastor of the Tashkent Cathedral parish, for providing the photographs illustrating this text.