Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Horodenka

In the central part of the town of Horodeka, in a cozy place, there is a stone church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The construction of the church is associated with the magnate Mykola Potocki, the owner of the town at the time.

The first mention of Horodenka in the Ivano-Frankivsk region dates back to 1195 in chronicles. At one time, the city was twice a part of Poland, was part of Austria, and in 1939 became part of Ukraine.

One of its landmarks is the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, built in 1763 at the expense of the founder Count Mykola Vasyl Pototskyi for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic community. According to legend, the church was founded to atone for the murder of a young girl.

The creators of the Greek Catholic church are architect Bernard Meretin from Italy and sculptor I. Pinzel (late XVII - 1759). The church was completed after the architect's death. The architectural forms of the church resemble those of the church in Godovytsia (architect B. Meretyn). The light, tall rectangular building is crowned with the family cross "Pyliava". The façade is decorated with icons, large arched windows, a wrought-iron balcony above the entrance, and vertical relief projections. Near the church is a three-tiered bell tower of similar architecture. The temple, together with the bell tower and the adjacent well-groomed territory, is located behind a wrought-iron patterned fence.

The iconostasis of the church is quite similar to the iconostasis in St. George's Cathedral in Lviv. The similarity of the iconostases suggests that they belong to the genius of Ukrainian sculpture, Ivan Pinzel. The upper part of the pediment of the main façade of the church repeats the pediment of the church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is located nearby. On the pediment is a fresco of the Virgin Mary.

There is a balcony above the entrance door to the church. The architecture of the church does not correspond to the traditions of Ukrainian Orthodox churches, but it is beautiful, solemn, and fast-paced. The building is rectangular with a rounded altar part, and has one dome. An arched bell tower was built at the entrance to the churchyard. Everything around is tidy and clean, the lawn is well-groomed and shortly mowed. There is also a popular legend that the church was built by Potocki as a sign of atonement for the murder of a girl from the neighboring village of Cherniatyn.

Interesting facts

• The magnificent consecration at the expense of the founder took place on June 1, 1766 (the ceremony was performed by Bishop Lev Sheptytsky).
• Like another church built at the expense of M. V. Potocki, the church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Horodenka is crowned with the Potocki coat of arms instead of a cross.
• According to the legend, based on one of the versions of the folk song "The Song of Bondarivna," the church was built as a sign of the magnate's atonement for the murder of Bondarivna, a girl from the neighboring village of Cherniatyn.
• M. Potocki allocated funds for 5 missionaries (of the Eastern rite) to live and work in the union.

Horodenka is a town and district center in the 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 Starostvo 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.