Carmelite Church (Przemysl)
Encyclopedia
Przemysl
Przemyśl is a city in south-eastern Poland with 66,756 inhabitants, as of June 2009. In 1999, it became part of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship; it was previously the capital of Przemyśl Voivodeship....
is a late-Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
church in the city of Przemyśl, in the Subcarpathian Voivodship in southern Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
.
The Roman Catholic order of Carmelites
Carmelites
The Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel or Carmelites is a Catholic religious order perhaps founded in the 12th century on Mount Carmel, hence its name. However, historical records about its origin remain uncertain...
came to Przemyśl in 1620. Their church was founded by the duke of Podolia, Michał Krasicki, and constructed in the years 1627-1631 most probably according the design of Galleazzo Appiani
Galleazzo Appiani
Galleazzo Appiani was an Italian architect who worked in Poland. Amongst his designs are the Carmelite Church in Przemyśl and the Krasicki Palace, built between 1592 and 1618 for the Krasicki family in Krasiczyn....
. The interior is explicitly Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
, including a pulpit
Pulpit
Pulpit is a speakers' stand in a church. In many Christian churches, there are two speakers' stands at the front of the church. Typically, the one on the left is called the pulpit...
with a ship-like shape.
In 1772 after the First Partition of Poland
First Partition of Poland
The First Partition of Poland or First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that ended the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. Growth in the Russian Empire's power, threatening the Kingdom of Prussia and the...
the city fell under Austrian
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
rule, which by a decree of Joseph II
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...
liquidated the order in 1784. The Austrian authorities also blocked the ongoing construction of a Greek Catholic Cathedral (an already erected belfry was later turned into a clock tower) and instead offered the town's Ukrainian
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
population the confiscated Carmelite Church as part of a plan to solidify their rule over the newly acquired territory by setting its inhabitants against each other.
In 1884, Ukrainian architect Mykola Zakharevych, a professor at Lviv Polytechnic
Lviv Polytechnic
Lviv Polytechnic National University is the largest scientific university in Lviv. Since its foundation in 1844, it was one of the most important centres of science and technological development in Central Europe. In the interbellum period, the Polytechnic was one of the most important technical...
, designed and built an addition a dome modeled that was modeled on St. Peter's Basilica in Rome which also incorporated elements of Ukrainian wooden church architecture. This dome was meant to symbolize the Ukrainian congregation's connection to the Vatican.
The 1925 Concordat between Poland and the holy See confirmed that the building belongs to the Greek Catholic Church.
Soon after the Second World War a Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
controlled communist government expelled most of the Ukrainians from Przemyśl during the Operation Vistula, including most of the clergy and bishop Josaphat Kotsylovsky
Josaphat Kotsylovsky
Blessed Josaphat Joseph Kotsylovsky was a Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishop and martyr.Kotsylovsky was born 3 March 1876 in the village of Pakoszowka , of the Lemko Region. Kotsylovsky was of Lemko origin, and Ukrainian national orientation...
(Jozefat Kocyłowski), who was martyred.
In 1946 Carmelite monks, who were forced to leave their monasteries in Soviet Ukraine, settled in Przemyśl and returned to the empty church. In 1991, shortly after Poland regained full independence and the Church was able to freely operate, the church building became a focal point of Polish-Ukrainian tensions.
The Roman Catholic Church decided to transfer the building to the Greek Catholic Church for the period of five years during which the Greek Catholics would construct a new sanctuary in Przemyśl and then give the church back to the Carmelite Order. The Ukrainians, who perceived the return of the building as historical justice, had no intention of doing so. Local Poles occupied the church to prevent its transfer, and the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
transferred a former Jesuit church to the Greek Catholics. Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
wished to return the church to the Ukrainian Catholics who had used it prior to their expulsion by the Soviets.
The Carmelites begun modification of architectural details of the Cathedral to give it more Latin-rite appearance and erase traces of the church's links to Ukrainian Greek Catholicism. The belltower was a target due to its easily seen Cyryllic inscriptions. Roman Catholics in the city argued that the church which was originally Roman Catholic, confiscated and given to Ukrainians by Austrian authorities, was rightfully returned to the Poles.
In 1996, against the orders of the conservator general of historical monuments in Poland, Prof. Andrzej Tomaszewski
Andrzej Tomaszewski
Andrzej Tomaszewski , Warsaw 26 January 1934 - Berlin 25 October 2010. He was a Polish historian of art and culture, architect, urban planner and archaeologist, investigator of Medieval architecture and art in Poland and abroad...
, the Carmelites destroyed the Habsburg-era dome
Dome
A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
of the church, claiming that it disrupted Przemysl's "Polish" skyline, an act which sparked protests amongst Ukrainians in Przemyśl, the mayor of Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
. The Carmelite church continues to serve the faithful of the Latin Rite.
The church includes a plaque commemorating victims of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.