In the former Stanislaviv (now Ivano-Frankivsk), the only Roman Catholic church, known as the Polish or Railway Church, is still in operation today. This is because it was built close to the railway station with a large financial contribution from the railway families.

"Great Stanislaviv" and the history of the church's construction

After Poland regained independence, as part of the reorganisation of the church administration, the creation of new dioceses was considered, including Stanislawow and Ternopil. Eventually, the creation of the diocese of Stanislawów did not materialise, but the increase in the number of believers in the city, associated with the influx of population, influenced the construction of new churches. The most important religious building in interwar Stanislaviv (now Ivano-Frankivsk) was the Roman Catholic church in the Gorka district, which was quite distant from the city centre. In the 1920s it was expanded to become one of the largest districts in the city.

The construction of the church was linked to the "Greater Stanislaviv" initiative launched by the City Council in early 1925. The aim was to transform Stanislaviv into a metropolitan centre: integration of the downtown area with the suburban districts, development of urban construction, incorporation of a new regulatory plan. By the end of the interwar period, several new school buildings had been completed, the town hall had been extensively rebuilt, a municipal power station had been built, fire brigade barracks had been constructed and many new facilities had been built for public institutions and social organisations. The temple, on the other hand, was to have a symbolic function as a monument to the "Great Stanislavl".

Stanislav Trela - designer of the Polish church

In 1925. The Circle of Polish Architects held a nationwide competition for the design of the church in Stanislawow. The winner was the most outstanding architect of interwar Stanislavov, Stanislav Trela, the author of, among other things, the project to rebuild the Town Hall. The second prize went to Erwin Wieczorek and Irena Obmińska, the third to Kazimierz Stepan and Zbigniew Rzepecki, and the fourth to engineer Rawski. At the beginning of 1926, an exhibition of designs was held in the hall of the District Council. The main attraction of the exhibition was a model according to Trela's design cast in plaster by the sculptor Władysław Adamiak. The architectural concept also included a vicarage and a nursery, located symmetrically with respect to the church, which was intended to expose the temple and create a harmonious overall composition.

Construction of the church in the Górki district

The new church was built on an important thoroughfare - Wolczyniecka Street (now Wowczyniecka Street), on land donated by the City Council. Between 1925 and 1926, various cultural events were held, initiated and led by the Building Committee, under the leadership of Father Ludwik Pecek and engineer Antoni Firich. The proceeds from these events were used to build the church. Generous donors included the mayor of the town, Wacław Chowaniec, and the vice-president, Włodzimierz Dąbrowski, as well as the Ministry of Railways. Most of the costs, however, were covered by the inhabitants of Górka, including the railwaymen who lived there. The dedication ceremony for the memorial cross took place on 1 March 1925.

Construction started in the spring of 1926. In October 1929, the Archbishop of Lwow, Bolesław Twardowski, laid the foundation stone in the presbytery. The works were initially managed by Trela, and after he left Stanislawów in 1932, the function of construction manager was taken over by engineer Stanislaw Dziurzynski. By 1939 the investment was basically completed, although it was not possible to plaster the façade and execute many details before the outbreak of the Second World War, as well as to build the planned free-standing bell tower and the presbytery and orphanage.

Architectural form of the church in Stanislaviv (Ivano-Frankivsk)

The Catholic magazine "Polish Family" wrote about new phenomena in church architecture: Today, the Church does not hesitate to make use of the creations of the art of our time, which lives under the signs of machineism and ferro-concrete. This manifests itself in new attempts at ecclesiastical architecture, in which we see various concepts of modern building used, again and again, not at all successfully. [... ] The principle of this architecture is the rejection of all that is an ornamental trailer that does not explain itself by an inner organic need. The architectural mass of modern buildings is dominated by expediency and an aversion to any lipstick of ornamental insincerity. There may even be a valuable rationale for revising religious life where it has become hypocritical.

The Stanislavski temple fully conforms to this characteristic. Despite its traditional plan and mass of a three-nave basilica with a transept (transverse nave) and a dome with a tambour at the intersection of the naves and an ambulatory (a walkway around the presbytery), it is undoubtedly a modernist building, very daring for its time. The architect completely dispensed with historicist detailing. He limited himself to simplified, à la volute cuts, while the oculus in the ambulatory evokes the so-called 'ship style', a popular style in architecture between the wars.

The monumental character was achieved through the appropriate composition of the masses. The openwork attic, which crowns the body of the building, gives it a certain lightness. In terms of inspiration, the Hagia Sophia church in Constantinople is mentioned, as well as the competition concept for the St Anne's Church in Lvov from 1912 by Lvov professors Władysław Derdacki and Witold Minkiewicz, who won second prize at the time.

Even if Stanisław Trela used it, it is probably not his only inspiration. There are, in fact, clear similarities between the Stanislaw Church and the famous Baroque temple in Lviv - St George's Cathedral. Trela's design appears to be a modernised and simplified version of this building.

Book depository in a Polish church

In 1946, the pastor of the church, Fr Władysław Szetela, managed to remove some of the furnishings and liturgical equipment. Until the spring of 1989, the church was used as a book warehouse. It was not until 1989 that it was returned to the Stanislav Roman Catholic community and consecrated by Fr Jan Olszański on 24 June that year. The established parish was taken over by Father Kazimierz Halimurka. In the 1990s, thanks to his efforts, the church was repaired, the facade plastered and the furnishings supplemented (among others, the neo-Baroque side altars were obtained from the Bonifratellian church in Krakow). A residential annex and a parish house designed by Volodymyr Kreczmar were also built at this time.

Today, the Church of Christ the King of the Universe is the only Roman Catholic church in Ivano-Frankivsk. It is called the "Polish Church" by the city's residents.