Living church

The Roman Catholic parish church in Hodowica served the inhabitants of two villages: Hodowica and Basiówka until 1946, i.e. until the Poles were forced to leave their native land. In April this year, almost everyone left by special trains from Glinna railway station, including the last parish priest, Fr. Jarosław Chomicki, who – having no illusions about new Soviet orders – took with him the painting of Our Lady of Hodowica.

Until 1960, the church served for Ukrainian residents and, according to numerous reports, it was not destroyed or neglected in any way. Ultimately, however, representatives of the district authorities in Lviv demanded that the villagers had to give them the keys to the church. Over time, the church without a host fell into decline. The unique sculptural altar composition of Johan Georg Pinsel was closed in museum warehouses, paintings and baroque furnishings were stolen over the years.

The devastation of the interior was completed in 1974 by an explosion inside the church, which, by destroying the tin roof, irretrievably ruined the paintings on the vaults: above the altar, the image of God the Father, in the church cross, the scene of handing the keys to St. Peter and on the nave’s vault an impressive representation of All Saints.

The fate of the All Saints Church, a decaying, roofless church was known to all: the displaced Poles who remembered its beauty, the Ukrainian inhabitants of Hodowica who prayed there during the post-war Soviet years, and the art historians, who in numerous publications were describing the church as one of the most magnificent sacred buildings in the Lviv region. The authorities also knew about a declining cultural monument from the 18th century and even planned some conservation works. As the documents found in the archives showed, renovation and later reconstruction plans were drawn up in the years 1961, 1974, 1990, 1994. There were even building materials collected – unfortunately, apart from inventories and designs on paper, these intentions did not go beyond.