Attractions of Rohatyn

The Descent of the Holy Spirit Church in Rohatyn is one of the oldest wooden churches in Ukraine, an excellent example of the Galician school of monumental and decorative art of the XVI-XVII centuries, an architectural monument of national importance.

The Rohatyn Holy Spirit Church is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in the category "Wooden Churches of the Carpathian Region of Ukraine".

The official date of construction is 1598, although the first references to the Holy Spirit Church in Rohatyn date back to the 12th century. According to legend, it was in this church that Havrylo Lisovsky, the father of the famous Roksolana, served as a priest.

The church is three-log, with a high central log. It is adjoined from the west by a three-tier bell tower of the 17th century, reminiscent of a defensive tower. An underground passage leads to the nearby defense Nativity of the Holy Virgin Church.

The five-tier Renaissance-Baroque iconostasis of 1650, which is one of the three oldest in Ukraine, is considered the greatest value of the Holy Spirit Church in Rohatyn. In 1885, it was restored by the Lviv artist Yulian Markevych, after which the iconostasis was exhibited for some time at the archaeological and ethnographic exhibition in Lviv.

During Soviet times, the Holy Spirit Church in Rohatyn was transformed into a museum of wooden architecture, icon painting, sculpture and carving.

Now it is a museum-monument of wooden architecture and painting as part of the Rohatyn Museum Complex, which is a branch of the Ivano-Frankivsk Art Museum of Prykarpattya. The museum exposition demonstrates the development of Ukrainian icon painting and decorative carving from the 16th century, the transition from the traditional Byzantine system to the art of the Ukrainian Renaissance in the 17th century, the flowering of Ukrainian Baroque in the 18th century. An icon of the monastery type "John the Baptist with life" of the middle of the 16th century, icons of the 18th-19th centuries from the churches of Rohatyn region, as well as stone products, wooden sculptures and candlesticks, old prints are presented.

The monumental building of the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Nicholas and Anna was built in the very center of Rohatyn in the 15th century on the site of a wooden temple.

It combines Gothic and Renaissance features in its architectural form. The loopholes on the 42-meter-high belfry testify to the defensive nature of the structure - it repeatedly played the role of a fortress tower during the attacks of the Turks and Tatars in the 17th century. A women's monastery and a hospital functioned at the church.

The building was damaged during the Second World War, in the 1970s it was converted into a furniture warehouse, then a local history museum. During the years of independence, the church was returned to the Catholic community, restored and consecrated as the Church of Saint Nicholas and Anna.

A monument to the legendary Roksolana has been erected on the Rynok Square in front of the church.

The Memorial Manor-museum of Mykola Uhryn-Bezhrishny (former Rohatyn Museum of Art and Local Lore) is part of the Rohatyn Museum Complex.

The museum opened in 2003 in the premises of the restored manor of the famous writer, publisher and public figure Mykola Uhryn-Bezhrishny. He lived a significant part of his life in Rohatyn - he taught at the Ukrainian private gymnasium, published the magazines "Rohatynets" and "Samopal", the newspaper "Rohatynske slovo", etc.

In the main exposition "Mykola Uhryn-Bezhrishny and Rohatyn artists of the first half of the 20th century" documents and photographs from the life of the writer and his contemporaries, sketches of publication covers, books with illustrations, exhibition brochures, paintings and graphics by local artists are presented.

The museum also presents folk art, ethnography and daily life of Rohatyn Opillya, sacred art of Rohatyn region. A separate exhibition section introduces visitors to the figure of Nastya Lisovska (Roksolana).

The Descent of the Holy Spirit Church, which is a UNESCO monument, is also part of the Rohatyn Museum Complex.

The Defense Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Virgin is the oldest building in the city of Rohatyn.

It was founded during the times of the Galicia-Volyn principality - no later than the 14th-15th centuries, and possibly even earlier. During the Tatar raids, the temple served as a small fortress, as evidenced by the defensive walls.

The church burned down three times and was rebuilt with some changes, as a result of which Gothic and Baroque elements were intertwined in the architectural form.

During Soviet times, the Church of the Nativity remained active. It was damaged during the Second World War, but in 1955 the restored temple was consecrated. A little later, the iconostasis was restored.

The Rohatyn Historical and Local Lore Museum "Opillya" was founded in 1941 as the Arts Museum of the Rohatyn region on the initiative of the local intelligentsia, but then it did not exist for long.

The museum was revived in 2018 in a historical building, which is an architectural monument of the 18th century. The exhibition in five halls tells about the history of Rohatyn Opillya from the earliest times to the 20th century. In particular, fragments of ceramics from ancient archaeological cultures, Ancient Rus jewelry, collections of spheres and coins from the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, traditional Opillya clothing and embroidery, household items, etc. are presented.

The history of the city is revealed by a graphic visualization of the defense fortifications of ancient Rohatyn, a copy of the privilege of moving the city to a new location in 1415, portraits of Nastya Lisovska (Roksolana) and typical Turkish clothing of the 17th century, a map of Europe by the British cartographer William Faden in 1791, and items of traditional Jewish culture.

A separate exhibition is dedicated to the history and outstanding figures of the Rohatyn region in the first half of the 20th century.

It is possible to order a pottery master class.