Information about the object:
According to a 1375 document issued by the Polish provincial Jan of Brzeg, the St. Nicholas church complex became the second Dominican foundation in Podolia after Smotryč. The brick church and Dominican monastery were built around 1420, after the first, wooden church had burned down. From 1596, the patronage of the temple and monastery was held by the Potocki family, who financed the rebuilding of the complex several times (including after the fire of 1616, devastation and the siege of the city by the Turks in 1672). After the dissolution of the monastery, in 1843, the church became a parish church, but after the Second World War it was turned into a warehouse. The monastery complex also suffered from a fire in 1993.

The four portals in the church leading to the chapels, together with their decoration, constitute a unique complex of Renaissance and Mannerist decoration constantly studied by art historians. Three of the portals have already undergone restoration in previous years. These are the portals leading also to the Chapel of the Crucified Jesus, but from the nave, and the two portals leading to the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary. The portals are an integral part of the stucco and stonework decoration of the church, which is of great artistic, aesthetic and historical value, and every year during the successive works new artefacts are found that add to the knowledge of the church.

Since 1998, the monastery has been systematically restored by the Pauline Fathers, who have become the hosts of the temple and the Dominican monastery.

The conservation and restoration work carried out allowed the left nave to be opened to the faithful and tourists, which took place on the church's 650th anniversary. The nave displays high artistic and historical values through a combination of 18th-century stucco decoration, 17th-century stone decoration and the church's oldest polychromes from the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. The portal is the most visible object in the nave and a priceless object for the church.

Completed works:

2020 (stage VIII)
The project was a continuation of the conservation work inside St. Nicholas Church in Kamieniec Podolski.

Conservation and restoration work was carried out on the stucco decorations and the portal leading to the Chapel of the Crucified Lord Jesus (in the left, northern nave of the church). The Renaissance chapel was created at the beginning of the 17th century by the foundation of the Humiecki family. This means that the portal itself is one of the oldest objects in the church.

As part of the task, work was carried out to stabilise and strengthen the structure by locally fusing the portal to the masonry, bonding together detached stone fragments and fixing the moving coat of arms. The work was of a technical nature. Equally important was the removal of weathered layers of colour, which had been deposited deep in the pores of the stone and had clogged them, making them impermeable to water vapour and further weakening the stone structure. Reconstructions of stucco elements and restorations of cavities were carried out, so that the forms were authenticated.

2021 (Phase IX)
The project is a continuation of conservation work, this year already the ninth edition, on the interior of St Nicholas Church in Kamieniec Podolski. This time the conservation work included the conservation of the right side nave of the church: conservation work on the western wall under the choir; conservation work on the plasterwork and polychrome on the vaulting of the right nave; the first stage of technical work on the wooden details of the choir and technical work on the structure of the baroque choir.

Funding: Programme of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage "Protection of cultural heritage abroad"

More about the project: edition 2020 , edition 2021

• Towarzystwo Tradycji Akademickiej, realizacja w latach 2020 i 2021.