Church of St. Nicholas, Horodenka

The St.Nicholas Church in Horodenka is a popular town church that has been actively functioning since its inception to the present day. A little further from the central part of Horodenka, on the way past the synagogue and the market, on a small square, among the one-story houses, stands the stone church of St. Nicholas. The beautiful building of atypical architecture was built in 1793 by the Greek Catholic community of the city. The funds to start construction had to be raised by the whole world, and the townspeople mutually decided to raise the necessary capital for the future city church. In memory of this fact, a memorial plaque on a shaped metal stand is placed on its facade.

The brick church was built on the site of an old wooden church (unfortunately, it has not been preserved). It is not large in size, classically three-dimensional, consisting of a narthex, a nave, and an altar. The single-domed, gilded dome is located above the nave, which is higher than the narthex and the altar, and ends with a cross.

The main façade of the church ends with a triangular, rounded pediment in the highest part, decorated with decorative vases and balls with crosses. There is a balcony above the main entrance to the church. Under the balcony, above the main entrance to the church, there is a fresco of St. Nicholas.

The protruding side parts of the nave end in small domes with crosses at the top. The rectangular altar with rounded sides is crowned with a small dome. The church yard is enclosed by an iron fence. A large brick arched bell tower adjoins the fence from the side of the main entrance to the churchyard.

The multi-level structure is divided into several separate rooms with different entrances. The approach to decorating the exterior is surprising, as the author used a combination of styles and materials. Inside the temple, guests can see an episode of the original painting, which, unfortunately, was badly damaged by ongoing repairs in the 20th century. For a better acquaintance with the city and its colorful history, it is worth visiting the magnificent Assumption Church with a solemn exterior of magnificent stucco moldings.

Horodenka is a town, a district center in Ivano-Frankivsk region, on the lands formerly called Pokuttya. The first written mention of Horodenka dates back to 1195. In 1668, the town received the Magdeburg Law. Horodenka was a part of the Ruthenian Voivodeship centered in Lviv and belonged to the Kolomyia Starostwo of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1772 (after the first partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), the Horodenka region, as part of Galicia, was occupied by Austria-Hungary. During the Austro-Hungarian occupation, two monasteries were liquidated in Horodenka, and in 1788 the first secular school was opened with German as the language of instruction.