Church of the Nativity of Christ of the 13th-15th centuries in Halych

None of the researchers has yet been able to establish the date of the church's construction, although scientific research has been going on for over two hundred years. It is most likely that the stone Church of the Nativity was built in the fourteenth century. Until Pasternak discovered the foundations of the chronicle's Assumption Cathedral in Krylos in 1936, the church was considered a princely cathedral. The Church of the Nativity is one of the oldest shrines in Halych, belongs to the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and is part of the Ancient Halych Reserve. A model of Ancient Halych is located near the Church of the Nativity.

One of the researchers of Galician churches, Yurii Lukomskyi, claims that the three-dimensional composition of the Church of the Nativity once had a cruciform plan, and was three-domed with a traditional entrance from the west. Later, the church was added to the west, north, and south. The addition was caused by the construction of the Church of the Holy Cross close to the church. The neighborhood with the monastery made it difficult to go around the church, which was a part of the Byzantine rite. As a result of the addition, the western wall became deaf, and two doors were made on the north and south sides.

In the sixteenth century, the Church of the Nativity was mentioned in historical sources as the main religious building of craft associations and workshops. In 1593, Polish King Sigismund III approved the charter of the pottery workshop in Halych, according to which the Church of the Nativity was his property. A year later, the church was taken over by the brotherhood.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Church of the Nativity was destroyed several times by the Tatars and even fell into desolation, but in the second half of the eighteenth century it began to be rebuilt and acquired a modern appearance. One of the bells for the bell tower was cast in 1785. At the same time, a wooden carved gilded one-tiered iconostasis was made, and three metal panicles were made.

The church was restored in 1825 by the architect Berger. It was then that the buttresses were removed from the north and south sides, and the choirs that had previously been missing were placed in the narthex.
The further history of the church is associated with the personality of Father Mykola Wynnyckyj (1869-1929), who in 1895 became a collaborator and 7 years later the pastor of the Galician parish. He helped architect L. Levynskyi to restore the church (1904-1906). After the restoration, the church acquired a modern appearance. By the early twentieth century it was covered with a gable roof with a baroque western pediment. A wooden bell tower adjoined the western façade. During the restoration (1904-1906), a new dome was built and the interior was restored. Upon completion of the work, the church was consecrated in 1906 by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky.

The Church of the Nativity in Halych recently installed a unique iconostasis carved from sandstone. It is decorated with mosaic icons and has a forged Gate of Heaven. To celebrate the 1100th anniversary of Halych, a bell tower was added to the church in the same style as the shrine itself.

The rector of the Church of the Nativity, Father Mykola Vynnytskyi, was a Muscovite by political views. At the beginning of World War I, he collaborated with the organization Carpathian Liberation Committee, which promoted unification with Russia. The Austrian authorities severely persecuted Muscophiles. Together with 127 residents of Halych, Father Mykola was imprisoned in the Austrian concentration camp in the city of Talerhof. A few years later, he, one of the few, managed to return home. On the initiative of the priest and in memory of the victims of the Austrian genocide, a monument was erected near the church in 1929, on which the names of 20 residents of Halych who were tortured in Talerhof were engraved.

In 1960, the church underwent another renovation, and the interior was thoroughly updated. The oil paintings of the Gospel scenes were created by brothers Mykhailo and Petro Shchupak. Unlike the princely white-stone cathedrals, the Church of the Nativity is built of local soft stone - marl and brick with lime mortar. It is a valuable architectural monument of the late Middle Ages and one of the oldest churches of the Galician Deanery.

You can get to the Church of the Nativity in Halych from Ivano-Frankivsk or Lviv by the H09 highway, which passes through the central part of the city. Buses connect Halych with all the regional centers of Galicia and surrounding cities. There are also trains and electric trains to the Halych railway station. It takes about 20 minutes to walk to the city center.

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