Historical outline

Podhajce is a town located to the south-east of Lviv, about 100 km (as the crow flies). It lies among the hills, on the Koropets River, a tributary of the Dniester. The origin of the unusual name of the village is not fully known. Some sources speak of a simple evolution related to the hill named 'Gaj'. Etymology suggests a process of name formation from "Podgaj" through "Podgajce" to "Podhajce". The history of the village, like that of the Holy Trinity Church, is very complex. In its history, the town has changed its nationality several times. The oldest church is said to have existed in Podhajce already in the 15th century. Apparently, there was originally a parish there, which declined due to various factors.

The present-day appearance of the church came about on the initiative of Zofia Tyszkiewiczowa, the voivode of Trakai, who recognised that, after another Tartar invasion, the old building was so dilapidated that the village required a completely new religious building. In her will, she expressed the wish that she be buried in a church that 'she herself had built without all the pomp of the world'. So a sandstone building was built, in Renaissance style, but with post-Gothic elements. In 1643, a sepulchral chapel was added to the presbytery, where, among others, the descendants of the Tyszkiewicz family were laid to rest.

At the end of the 19th century, the Podhajec parish included the following villages: Bekierów, Białokrynica, Bożyków, Gniłowody, Holendry, Justynówka, Mądzelówka, Michałówka, Mużyłów, Nowosiółka, Siółko, Staremiasto, Uhrynów, Wierzbów and Zahajce.

After the Second World War, the Soviets took back the church and used it as a warehouse. But the bad fortune did not end there. In the 1970s, there were plans to blow up the building, and ten years later the church was hit by a fire that consumed the vault and the tower. After Ukraine regained independence, a Roman Catholic parish was registered in the village, which spent the next 15 years trying to get the building back. The current state of the church is a ruin. Only the chapel, where services are held, has been renovated. There had long been plans for a complete and utter restoration of the whole, but the coronavirus pandemic and then the war in Ukraine definitely postponed these plans.

Architecture

The building was built on a cruciform plan. It is an example of the concept of Renaissance meets post-Gothic. The church was built of brick and plastered. It has a three-bay nave and a tower. Chapels are situated on the sides. One of them is adjacent to the presbytery. The entrance to the building is through a portal in the shape of a blind portico.

The attention is drawn to the massive tower covered with a tent roof. The eastern part houses the former chapel of Zofia Tyszkiewicz. The lantern dome above this place, which is the only renovated part of the church, immediately draws attention with its shape of a pointed bannister. In the western part you will find the sacristy with a vault on the first floor. Adjacent to the southern presbytery is the chapel of St Nicholas.

In the interior, attention is drawn to the rectangular pillars at the front shaped as pairs of pseudo-pillars. The vaults in the nave are cross-ribbed. The walls and vaults are covered with paintings from 1912. Professor Jan K. Ostrowski suggests that they may have been created from remnants of earlier works. They emphasise the articulation of the planes.

Other important elements associated with the church's decoration, furnishings and surroundings include:

- A brick bell tower probably dating from around 1774,

- Epitaph of Marcin Pniowski,

- Stone statues in the former cemetery next to the church (St. Stanislaus and an unspecified saint). They date from the 19th century.