Nativity Church, Ternopil

openas of 2026-10-011602Halychyna

Photo: Belladonna Malkavian · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

A defensive-type masonry church of 1602–1608, one of the oldest in Ternopil.

The masonry Church of the Nativity of Christ was built from 1602 to 1608 — according to castles.com.ua, under the supervision of the mason Leontii; it was consecrated at Christmas 1609. A wooden Nativity church is mentioned as early as a charter of 1566: it stood by the ramparts near the Kamianets Gate. Walls up to 2 m thick and high-set loophole windows make it a church of the defensive type — it was part of the town's defensive system. Later a second tier and two semicircular towers were added; the main rebuilding came in the 1660s, and the cathedral took on its present appearance after the reconstruction of 1936–1937. Damaged in the Second World War, the church was restored in 1956; in 1958, when the street was widened, the wall around it was taken down, and the bell tower was demolished according to Ternopolis, moved according to irp.te.ua. Until 1946 the church was Greek Catholic; today it is a cathedral of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, where an icon of the Mother of God donated in 1730 is kept.

Routes through this landmark

• Ternopil of the Churches