Church of St. Nicholas, Belz
TheChurch of St. Nicholas is one of the most beautiful and prominent buildings in the small town of Belz in western Ukraine. Now it serves the Orthodox community, but previously it was the Greek Catholic Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Hence the style of the building - Art Nouveau with Gothic elements: sharp tall towers, typical of Catholic churches and reminiscent of an ancient castle. The former church is a part of the historical and cultural reserve "Princely Belz".
The church was built from 1906 to 1911 and was named after St. Veronika. The architect of the new brick church was Kalikst Krzyżanowski. The church was built in the Art Nouveau style with Gothic elements. The facade is asymmetrical, with the tower to the right of the entrance. There are cores embedded in the façade, and the inscription "O Mario Matko Boza Ratuj Nas" is embossed on top of it. In the interwar period, the church was used as a garrison church.
In 1933-1938, the construction of the entire church complex was completed according to the project of architect Witold Rawski. In particular, in 1935, a new field altar of St. Valentine was erected, which now houses a new copy of the icon. The field altar was built in the style of functionalism. In 1933, a bell tower was built in the Art Nouveau style with elements of Romanticism. It is two-tiered, brick, and crowned with a crown, which resembles a chess rook. The façade bears one of the historical coats of arms of Belz - the image of a griffin. The tower is quite well preserved.
The church gate was built in 1935. It is a three-arched structure. It depicts another coat of arms of Belz - a cannon man with a cannon and the Latin inscription "Belz constant fidelis" (Belz is always faithful). The gate, like the bell tower, has not been restored, but is well preserved. The Way of the Cross was the last to be built, in 1938. It consists of brick walls with 14 stations. The two rear corners are accentuated by corner chapels. From 1939, when Bełż, like the rest of Poland, was occupied by the Third Reich and the USSR, a German border observation post was located here, as the new border between the Third Reich and the Soviet Union ran along the Solokia River near the church. Since 1951, when Belz was transferred from the Polish Republic to the Ukrainian SSR, a Soviet border garrison has been located here. In 1991, the church was transferred to the Orthodox community, and since then it has been named after St. Nicholas.
The old castle church housed the greatest relic, the Belzsk Icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is considered one of the oldest in Marian iconography. According to legend, this image was painted by the evangelist Luke. The icon was kept in Constantinople for 656 years, and then passed to the Byzantine princess Anna, whom Prince Volodymyr of Kyiv married. After a long journey, the icon ended up in Bełża, from where it was taken to Poland in 1382 by the Polish king's governor in Galicia, Władysław Opolski. Now the image is kept in the Yasnohursky Monastery and is known as the icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa.
On the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of Belz, the Poles presented Ukrainian believers with a laser copy of the icon. It is kept in the chapel of St. Valentine, which is part of the church complex. It also includes the St. Mary's Tower with the Belz coat of arms.
Belz also has a Greek Catholic Church of St. Nicholas, located on the territory of the 17th-century Dominican monastery.
