Franciscan monastery, Vynohradiv

TheFranciscan monastery (Vynohradiv ) is a monument of sacred architecture, which includes a church of 1516 and a two-story cell building adjacent to the church. It is an architectural monument of national importance (#174). The remains of the monastery garden are preserved on the south side.

The monastery church was designed in the Gothic style. However, after the invasion of the horde of Khan Giray (1717), the church was rebuilt in the Baroque style. The nineteenth-century paintings have survived to this day. In 1998, the building of the Franciscan monastery was transferred to the care of Roman Catholics. Nowadays the building has the status of a monument of national importance.

On August 29, 1399, King Sigismund (the ruler of Hungary, which at that time was part of Vynogradiv) transferred the Kankiv Castle to the possession of Baron Pereni. It was the Pereni family that invited Franciscan monks to the city in the early 1500s. Baron Pereni gave the castle to the monks in order to rebuild it into a monastery. It is likely that the Kankiv Castle was the first monastery and center of the Franciscans in Vynohradiv. The monks brought to the church the ashes of Janos Kapistran, a hero of the battle with the Turks near Belgrade on July 21, 1456, who, together with his retinue, came to the aid of the Hungarian commander Janos Hunyadi at a critical moment of the battle. Later, Janos Kapistran was canonized and became one of the most venerated Catholic saints during the struggle against the Turks.

During the Reformation, Pereni converted to Protestantism and expelled the clergy from the church. In 1556, he attacked a Franciscan monastery. He ordered the monks who resisted to be killed and their bodies with the ashes of Janos Kapistran thrown into a well.

The events that took place in the sixteenth century in Kankiv Castle are reflected in oral tradition. According to the legend, the monks tricked the daughter of Baron Pereni into the temple and imprisoned her in a dungeon. She was freed by a wandering pilgrim, but she fell ill and died soon after. In response to such arbitrariness of the monks, Baron Pereni ordered the monastery to be destroyed.

Currently, the Franciscan monastery building has somewhat lost its sacred function and is now used as an exhibition hall. In 2007, a personal exhibition of the Ukrainian artist Mykola Papp, who now lives in the United States, was held here. Before him, Shalanok Miklovš Gorongozo presented his personal exhibition. At the exhibition, a folk orchestra of teachers from the Bartok Children's Art School in Vynogradiv performed works by Ukrainian and world classics.

On December 27, 2012, at 12 o'clock, Kyiv time, the chapel of St. Francis was opened on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the Franciscan monks. A sculpture "St. Francis and his brother" was installed in the chapel. The scene depicted on this composition is one of the legends of St. Francis, which is engraved on the plates in two languages. According to legend, the scene from the composition took place in a vineyard, so there is some symbolism in the placement of this composition in Vynohradiv. It depicts a scene from one of the legends of St. Francis, and this legend will be engraved on the plates in two languages.