Wooden Church of Descent of Holy Spirit of 1598 is not only one of the oldest but also one of the most unusual in Ukraine. It has subterranean of which was an underground passage to defense Church of Nativity that is in a few hundred meters. The passage is engulfed and it is still possible to open the hatch in the floor of the church and go down to subterranean.

According to legend in case of attack of Tatars on Rohatin all inhabitants by bell signal had to enter the church. Next the door of the church locked and all people by underground passage went out to the woods.

It was said that the church Tatars may burn but most importantly to surviving people and then they build a new church. So our ancestors highly valued life of each inhabitant of the city!

Wooden Church of Descent of Holy Spirit is unique because its bell tower is under same roof. The bell tower was transferred and connected to the church in 1675.

Inside of Wooden Church of Descent of Holy Spirit there is iconostasis of middle XVII century. Without significant changes it remained in the original interior. In painting and decorative carving iconostasis embodied the highest achievements of Galician School of monumental and decorative art.

Along with famous Lviv iconostasis of Pyatnitska Church (the beginning of XVII century) and Assumption Church (1638) - the iconostasis of Wooden Church of Descent of Holy Spiritis a clear indication of development of ancient Ukrainian art.

Painting of iconostasis restored Lviv artist - a graduate of Vienna Academy of Fine Arts - Julian Makarevich (1854-1936). After restoration work in 1885 iconostasis was exhibited at archaeological and ethnographic exhibition in Lviv.

In 1895 restoration and repairs were carried out Wooden Church of Descent of Holy Spirit. For this Sejm allocated two thousand zlotys. Managed by the quality of the work the architect Mikhail Kovalchuk. Since then the church went through several renovations and restorations the most of which carried out in1980-1982. At the same time experts of Lviv restoration workshops conducted the restoration of the iconostasis.

In 1983 Wooden Church of Descent of Holy Spirit was opened as a department of Ivano-Frankivsk Art Museum.

You could visit Rohatin Sights | Wooden Church of Descent of Holy Spirit (XVI) with Ukraine Tour "Wooden Tserkvas of Carpathians"