Ruins of the church and obelisks of the Zaborowskis in Lyakhkovce

Driving along the Miodoborów range from Skawátya to Husiatyn, it is impossible not to notice the magnificent ruins of the Baroque church in the village of Liczkowce. In the vicinity of the church there are also two interesting obelisks erected in the first half of the 19th century on the initiative of the Zaborowski family, owners of the local landed estate. The most famous representative of this family was the poet Tymon Zaborowski - "the bard of Mihobory".

The church in Liczkowce was built in the first third of the 18th century on the foundation of the village owner, Andrzej Kawiecki, who had brought the Jesuits there a few years earlier. The material used for its construction was probably taken from the demolition of the castle standing nearby. The surviving fragment of the castle walls was converted over time into a chapel ("grotto of the Virgin Mary"), which has been renovated in recent years, but unfortunately in an extremely unsightly manner.

Its architecture is parsimonious compared to other churches built in Red Ruthenia and Podolia during this period. The only elements enlivening the austere façade of the church are six pilasters in great order and a stone relief portal with a stylised coat of arms of the Jesuit order and the date 12 May 1728 (probably the date of the start of construction work). The façade is crowned with a triangular gable, flanked by two blind turrets.

After the Polish population left Lychkovce, the church was turned into a warehouse. Until several years ago, the building was covered by a roof with a turret, which collapsed and the church is now just a shell of walls without a roof. Inside it is rubble overgrown with feral vegetation. Among the bricks and remnants of ceiling beams, it is possible to find tiles made in Kolomyia, with which the church's roof was covered after the 1920s renovation.

Obelisks of the Zaborowskis

In the immediate vicinity of the church there are two impressive obelisks erected by the Zaborowski family, owners of Lyakhkovce in the first half of the 19th century. One of them commemorates the Polish Army captain, Mikhail Zaborowski, killed in 1812 near Mažaislis during the expedition to Moscow. It has the form of a tall spire placed on a pedestal and topped with an antique helmet. On two sides of the pedestal are reliefs depicting stylised knightly armour.

The second obelisk commemorates the victims of the cholera epidemic that struck Lychkovce in 1830-1831 and, according to the inscription, claimed the lives of almost 200 villagers. The obelisk has the form of a column topped by a statue of a saint (probably Michael the Archangel), of which only the feet and a metal cross have survived to this day. Fragments of the shattered statue can be seen in the grass near the obelisk.

Even before the Second World War, there were several other tombstones associated with the Zaborowski family in the church cemetery, including those of the poet Tymon Zaborowski, his parents and uncle, and the Polish Army general Jan Szeptycki, who was related to them and buried in the church basement. Unfortunately, these have not survived to the present day.

"The bard of Miodoborów"

The most famous representative of the Zaborowski family was the poet Tymon Zaborowski, born in Liczkowce in 1799. After graduating from the Krzemieniec Lyceum, he settled in Warsaw for a few years before returning to the family landed estate. In circumstances that remain unexplained to the end, he drowned in the Zbruch River flowing near Liczkowce, which was the Austrian-Russian border at the time.

His poetry represented a transitional phase between classicism and romanticism. He eagerly referred to the turbulent history of Podolia and Rus. His best-known works were 'Podolski Dumy' and 'Zdobycie Kijowa' (dedicated to the 1018 expedition of Bolesław Chrobry).

It is worth mentioning that Tymon Zaborowski's scattered works were collected and published in 1936 in a single volume by Maria Danilewicz-Zielińska. From 1939 until her death in 2003, she lived in exile, first in the United Kingdom and later in Portugal. She was a very meritorious librarian in exile, among other things the creator and long-standing director of the Polish Library in London, now part of the Polish Social and Cultural Centre in London.

From Zbrucz to the Oder

By the outbreak of the Second World War, Liczkowce was inhabited by around 1,500 Poles and 500 Ukrainians. Almost all the Polish inhabitants left the village between 1945 and 1946 as part of the forced expatriation. They mostly settled in the village of Wierzbowa in the Bolesławiec district of Lower Silesia. They took over the abandoned Evangelical church there, in which elements of the deported church furnishings from Liczkowiec were placed. It is significant that after the war the church in Wierzbowa received the same name as the church in Liczkowice - that of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Another group of Liczkowiec inhabitants settled in the village of Rurzyca in the Goleniów district of Western Pomerania. Among them was the Kwiatkowski family, who, just after the Red Army entered on 17 September 1939, risked their lives to save the plaque with the eagle hanging on the Municipal Office in Liczkowce. This plaque was fortunately saved during the Soviet and German occupation, and is now exhibited in the Goleniów Regional Museum.