Cemetery in Kuty, photo Dorota Janiszewska-Jakubiak, all rights reserved
Fotografia przedstawiająca Kuty nad Czeremoszem
Kościół rzymsko-katolicki w Kutach, photo Dorota Janiszewska-Jakubiak, all rights reserved
Fotografia przedstawiająca Kuty nad Czeremoszem
Kościół rzymsko-katolicki w Kutach, photo Dorota Janiszewska-Jakubiak, all rights reserved
Fotografia przedstawiająca Kuty nad Czeremoszem
Kościół rzymsko-katolicki w Kutach, photo Dorota Janiszewska-Jakubiak, all rights reserved
Fotografia przedstawiająca Kuty nad Czeremoszem
Polychromies in the Roman Catholic Church in Kuty, photo Dorota Janiszewska-Jakubiak, all rights reserved
Fotografia przedstawiająca Kuty nad Czeremoszem
Roman Catholic Church in Kuty (interior), photo Dorota Janiszewska-Jakubiak, all rights reserved
Fotografia przedstawiająca Kuty nad Czeremoszem
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ID: POL-002047-P

Kuty nad Czeremoszem

ID: POL-002047-P

Kuty nad Czeremoszem

Situated on the Cheremosh River, Kuty was famous for its mild, warm climate attracting summer visitors and its beautiful surroundings, dominated by Mount Ovidius. Kuty was also widely known as the 'Armenian Republic', famous, among other things, for its traditional June indulgences, to which Armenians from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Romania, Moldova and even distant Armenia flocked.

Reminders of the Armenian presence include the Armenian church and the old cemetery, which is looked after by the Armenian Foundation. Thanks to its activities, the cemetery in Kuty has been inventoried, as have the Armenian cemeteries in Sniatyn, Horodenka, Banilovo, Vyzhnytsia, Lyascu, and the financial support granted to the Foundation under the Programme of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage 'Protection of Cultural Heritage Abroad' has enabled several tombstones of Polish Armenians in Kuty and Banilovo to undergo conservation work. The Foundation's activities also include the organisation, since 2008, of volunteer camps attended by young people from Polish Armenian families. During their stays in Kuty, participants take part in inventory work, cleaning, historical lectures and meetings with local residents.

During the Second Polish Republic, the border with Romania ran near Kuty. After the Soviet aggression against Poland on 17 September 1939, the Commander-in-Chief Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły; the President of Poland Ignacy Mościcki; the Minister of Foreign Affairs Józef Beck and Prime Minister Felicjan Slawoj Składkowski crossed the border bridge over the Czeremosz River in a crowd of refugees to Romania. Earlier, the last meeting of the Government of the Second Republic was held at the presbytery of the Greek Catholic Church with the President in attendance, and the last mass on the territory of the Republic was celebrated at the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Kuty, attended by representatives of state authorities.

The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was built in the centre of Kuty on the site of a former temple that burned down in 1895. In 1896-1898, thanks to the efforts of Father Jan Smagovich, the building was constructed according to a design by engineer Lukasz Julian Bodashevsky (1849-1908), a graduate of the Technical Academy in Lviv.

In the main altar of the temple was placed the painting "Sacred Heart of Jesus" signed "Batowski rp. 1898". The interior of the temple was decorated in 1909 with oil paintings by Adolf Orzechowski from Kolomyia and Wacław Jakub Jeziorek from Bochnia. The wall paintings are reminiscent of Baroque art, with illusionistic architectural divisions formed by plinths, cornices and columns. The fields in between featured imitation panels with decorative borders. The window glyphs and lunettes are decorated with painted borders and panels with acanthus leaf decoration. Figural representations in decorative frames are planned for the vaulting of the chancel and nave: "Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary", "Presentation of the Ten Commandments to Moses", "Blessed James Strzemię adoring the Blessed Sacrament" and "Mother of God with Child". The creation of the painting in Kuty is connected with the promotion of the cult of the Archbishop of Halych, the Franciscan Blessed Jakub Strzemię, initiated by Archbishop Józef Bilczewski in the territory of the Archdiocese of Lviv.

During World War II, the church was damaged by shells, and after the flight of many of the city's inhabitants and the post-war expatriation of Poles and Armenians, it was devastated and turned into a warehouse for glass packaging. In the 1990s, the church was returned to the Catholics and renovation work began. Initially, this consisted mainly of securing the building, making a roof covering, plastering the external walls and replacing degraded portions of the plaster inside the church. The conservation work on the paintings was carried out by a team of conservators consisting of Anna Gołębiewska-Patejuk and Kazimierz Patejuk, with funding provided by the Polish Community Association and the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Polish Cultural Heritage Abroad acting under the Polish Ministry of Culture. The same team also restored the painting from the main altar. Work began in 1997, but was discontinued in 2001 due to lack of funds.

In 2014. The Society for Academic Tradition, in cooperation with the Cultural Heritage Foundation, undertook to complete the work interrupted years ago. The conservation work carried out in 2014 included the repair of damaged external walls and the reconstruction of the paintings on the north wall of the church from the rainbow arch to the first bay. In 2015, conservation and restoration work was carried out on the paintings on the south wall of the church up to the first bay from the rainbow arch. In addition, the repairs carried out in 2014 allowed the surfaces of the plastered side elevations to be primed and painted. The walls, based on the uncoverings, were restored to their original ochre façade colour, with subtle white highlights on the cornices and window frames. The work in 2016 consisted of the restoration of the original polychrome on the south wall of the nave of the church, and in 2017 the restoration of the plasterwork and the reconstruction of the paint layer in the north transept chapel of the church. These tasks were carried out by a team under the direction of Kazimierz Patejuk thanks to funds granted to the Society of Academic Tradition under the Programme of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage 'Protection of Cultural Heritage Abroad'.

Time of origin:
1896-1898
Creator:
Adolf Orzechowski (malarz; Kołomyja, Kuty)(preview), Łukasz Bodaszewski (architekt; Lwów)(preview), Wacław Jakub Jeziorko (malarz; Kołomyja)(preview)
Publikacja:
17.07.2024
Ostatnia aktualizacja:
22.10.2024
Author:
Dorota Janiszewska-Jakubiak
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