"Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary" Rohatyn

The building of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Rohatyn is a traditional church with two pillars and a Gothic nave vault. The church's facades have buttresses connected by arches at the level of the vaults. A Baroque portal on two round columns and a stone staircase were later added to the western façade.

Numerous reconstructions of the church determined its appearance, in which elements of Gothic and Baroque architecture are creatively intertwined. There is no consensus among scholars about the date of construction of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Rohatyn. It is believed that the church is one of the oldest religious buildings in the country, and was built in the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, i.e., dates back to the times of the Galician principality.

And in the handwritten "Chronicle of the City and Churches in Rohatyn," compiled in the 2nd half of the 19th century by Dmytro Bidnenkyi, the author, based on the sources available to him, noted:

"Our church, whether it was built by the princes or by the Russian boyars, whether it was built simultaneously with the Galician castle or not, should be built in the first millennium after Christ."

However, most modern scholars hold the reasonable view that the church was built and acquired its present appearance in the XV-XVIII centuries. It is also known that the church burned down three times, and it was rebuilt each time with some changes both externally and internally.

The church brotherhood (known as the Rohatyn Brotherhood) used their own money to build the church iconostasis in 1642, which was made by the Lviv master Petrakhnovych-Morakhovskyi Mykola,[1] and lasted until 1932, when it was replaced by a new one.

During the First World War, when Rohatyn was almost completely burned down, the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary remained unharmed. And during the German attack on Galicia in World War II (1941), the church was hit by a bomb. As a result of its hit, the roof burned down, and only the walls remained. Soon the church was restored by the master Mykola Darmits. But three years later, in 1944, a landmine bomb hit the church and destroyed it from the inside. At that time, the church's pastor was Father Denys Telischuk (1885-1952), who was tortured by the Soviet authorities in Mordovian camps.

After the war, restoration work began in the church, which lasted almost 10 years. Finally, on July 31, 1955, the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Rohatyn was consecrated by His Grace Bishop Anthony. The iconostasis in its present form was completed only in 1961.

During the years of Ukraine's independence (since 1991), the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Rohatyn has undergone great changes: the church was enriched with interior decoration, restoration was carried out, in particular, the appearance and coating of the domes and crosses with gold leaf attracts attention; a figure of the Mother of God was also erected.

In 1998, the charitable foundation Caritas Love and Mercy was established at the church.

Currently, the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Rohatyn is not only a spiritual shrine but also a historical and architectural monument of national importance.

On October 21, 2012, the 800th anniversary of the church was celebrated. The hierarchical liturgy was led by the Archbishops and Metropolitans of the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk Metropolitanates, namely: Metropolitan Ihor Vozniak, CNI, and Metropolitan Volodymyr Viytyshyn, CSVV.