The village of Bar in the Vinnytsia Oblast in Ukraine was an important centre of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth for centuries, and to this day retains numerous material traces of Polish history and culture. The Polish presence here has left a lasting stamp, visible in the architecture and local historical memory. The ruins of the mighty fortress, the burial sites of Polish soldiers and the church where the Bar Confederation was founded are the most important points on the map of Polish heritage in this region.

The Queen in Bar

The history of the fortifications in Bar dates back to the reign of Queen Bona Sforza (1494-1557), but the fortress owes its greatest development and final shape to the later actions of the Polish magnates. Originally, it was a wooden castle built on the initiative of an Italian woman. It was she who gave the town its name referring to her home town "Bari".

In the years 1630-1636, Grand Crown Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski, who made Bar his residence, commissioned the construction of a massive, modern bastion fortress. The designer was the famous engineer Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan. The Frenchman was also the author of the first detailed maps of Ukraine.

The fortress was repeatedly attacked and besieged. It was finally destroyed by Cossack troops in 1648. Its ruins have survived to this day, including fragments of the perimeter walls, the gate tower and the outline of the bastions, a mute witness to the former power of the Republic.

Grave of Polish Army soldiers

In Bar, there is a burial place of Polish soldiers who lost their lives in the battles for Poland's independence in 1920. It is an important part of our national memory. As part of efforts to preserve Polish heritage in the East, graves and war cemeteries such as the one in Bar are regularly restored and cared for by Polish organisations and institutions. The site commemorates the sacrifice of the Polish army that fought against the Bolsheviks in the area.

Plaque commemorating the Confederates of Bar in the Church of St. Anne in Bar

St Anne's Church in Bar is a place of special historical significance for Poland. It was in this town, on 29 February 1768, that the Bar Confederation - an armed union of Polish nobility, the first Polish uprising in defence of the Catholic faith and the independence of the Republic, directed against the tutelage of the Russian Empire - was founded.

In 2018, on the 250th anniversary of these events, a plaque in honour of the Bar Confederates was unveiled in the church. This plaque commemorates the founders and participants of the confederation, providing an important point of reference for the local community of Polish origin, which still cherishes the memory of these events and often identifies with the descendants of the confederates.

The plaque bears inscriptions in Polish and Ukrainian:

IN TRIBUTE TO THE PATRIOTS

BROTHERS

MICHAŁ AND FR. BISHOP ADAM STANISŁAW KRASIŃSKI

AND

KAZIMIERZ PUŁASKI

DEFENDERS OF THE ENDANGERED INDEPENDENCE OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND

IN THE FACE OF RUSSIAN AGGRESSION

ON THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BAR CONFEDERATION 1768-2018.

THE MANAGEMENT AND STAFF OF THE MUSEUM OF ROMANTICISM IN OPINOGÓRA AND COMPATRIOTS OF MAZOWSZE

M. BAR, 9 SEPTEMBER 2018