6 minute read
Destroyed Temples of Ukraine Exhibit on Display in Mundare
Destroyed Temples of Ukraine Exhibit on Display in Mundare
Karen Lemiski - Curator - Basilian Fathers Museum
“… And they will rise in glory and power”: Destroyed Temples of Ukraine
Since February 24, 2022, at least 630 religious buildings – Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches, synagogues, and mosques -- in Ukraine have been destroyed, damaged, or looted during the full-scale Russian invasion. Along with the killing of members of the clergy, the Russian military’s seizure of religious buildings for use as military bases has further increased the scale of destruction of Ukraine’s religious sites. The exhibit Destroyed Temples of Ukraine is a visual exposition of 32 of these structures, revealing their targeted yet haphazard destruction as a consequence of the ongoing war.
According to Dr. Ihor Poshyvailo, director of the Maidan Museum (Kyiv), churches and religious sites have been integral features in Ukraine’s villages, playing a special role in the local community’s resistance, resilience, and solidarity during times of hardship. “The locations are like time capsules of historical and cultural memory, collective spiritual knowledge, and the beliefs and practices passed down from generation to generation.” In many cases, these places of worship are also sites of historical, cultural, and architectural distinction, with many of the buildings on national and world registers of cultural heritage. When the large-scale war broke out, Dr. Poshyvailo initiated the Heritage Emergency Response Initiative (HERI), which among its objectives, has been conducting field expeditions to document the damage caused to places associated with Ukraine’s history and culture.
One of the first churches the Russian forces attacked was the Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos in the village of Viazivka (Zhytomyr oblast), located close to the Belarussian border in northern Ukraine. This wooden church dates to 1862 and having survived two world wars, was almost completely destroyed in the first days of the invasion; the only surviving structure is the belfry. The connection of the community to the church became apparent when the HERI team examined the scattered debris of the church’s dome, where the names of the local craftsmen who had helped to maintain the building over the years were inscribed.
Indeed, the importance of the church in everyday life was captured during many of the oral histories the HERI team recorded, especially in interviews with older residents who often recalled when their grandparents or great-grandparents donated to the construction of the local church. In one instance, an elderly lady told the story of how her grandmother in the early twentieth century made many requests to the local authorities for permission to build a brick church in the village of Lukashivka (Chernihiv oblast). When the village was besieged in the current war, the Church of the Ascension was badly damaged by the Russian forces, who stored their armaments inside and around it. As Dr. Poshyvailo noted, “you cannot hear these stories without tears, because these are really sacred and special places, not only for present individuals and families but for multiple generations.”
Indeed, the HERI team was shocked by the destruction of so many religious buildings and sacred sites. Russian soldiers have used churches not only as shields – assuming that Ukrainian armed forces would not attack them if they organized their field hospitals or stored arms in them – but also as places for interrogating, torturing, and even killing people. In the village of Mala Komyshuvakha near Izium (Kharkiv oblast), the Russians occupied the Holy Trinity Church and transformed it into their military headquarters and a hospital for wounded soldiers. Not only the church but all the land around it was heavily mined and fortified. “It is a strange thing to see places of worship transformed into battlefields. It is also about the different attitudes toward sacredness by Ukrainians and Russians, which are so vivid from the evidence we gathered during our field research. This is a story we also want to share: it is a not only about the damage being done but also the absolutely different worldviews Ukrainians and Russians have on churches and spiritual life.”
The HERI team continues to receive information about newly destroyed places of worship in Ukraine.
Most of the photos displayed in the exhibit Destroyed Temples of Ukraine were taken during the expeditions of the National Memorial to the Heavenly Hundred Heroes and Revolution of Dignity Museum (also known as the Maidan Museum) to the territories affected by Russian aggression. This documentation work was part of the Heritage Emergency Response Initiative, and conducted in partnership with the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War (Kyiv).
The co-organizer of the museum project is the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Preserve. The English-language exhibit was developed by the Maidan Museum and the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (University of Alberta, Edmonton), and supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) as part of CIUS’ Religion and War in Ukraine project.
Through the use of QR codes, each image in the display is accompanied by information such as the appearance of the buildings before the Russian invasion; a brief history of the building’s architecture; along with links to additional resources including media reports about the damages.
Destroyed Temples of Ukraine is on display at the Basilian Fathers Museum (Mundare, AB) until October 2024.
