The St Nicholas (Sviato-Mykolaivskyi) Men’s Monastery of Sharhorod is one of the best-known Podillian monasteries, its history stretching between a Baroque monastic school that once taught up to 600 students and a Soviet museum of socialist workers. First Basilian, the monastery passed to Orthodoxy after Podillia joined the Russian Empire and became a centre of spiritual education for the whole region — the poet Stepan Rudanskyi studied here in the 1840s. Revived in 1996, it is famed for its copy of the wonder-working Pochaiv icon of the Mother of God. [1][3][4]
At a glance
- Full name: St Nicholas Men’s Monastery of Sharhorod (UOC).
- Address: 207 Heroiv Maidanu St, Sharhorod, Vinnytsia Oblast. [1][4]
- Founding: 17th–18th c.: first in Kalynivka, moved to Sharhorod by the Basilians. [2][4]
- Key dates: 1717/1718 — Basilians invited; 1782 — complex on the castle ruins; 1806–1818 — St Nicholas cathedral finished; 1937 — closed; 1996 — revived. [1][3][4]
- Unique feature: cathedral with a four-column portico facing, against the canon, to the south. [3]
- Status: architectural monument of national significance. [3]
History of the monastery
From Kalynivka to Sharhorod: the 17th–18th-century Basilians
The monastery’s history begins not in Sharhorod itself but in the neighbouring village of Kalynivka, where a men’s monastery already existed in the 17th century. It did not last long and lost its documents amid the wars, so by 1718 it had effectively ceased. The Sharhorod lord Oleksandr Konetspolskyi then revived the monastery and settled monks of the Uniate Basilian order there. [2]
The municipal tradition tells it slightly differently: in 1717 the magnate Stanisław Lubomirski invited Uniate Basilian monks to the banks of the Murashka, who founded the monastery, opening a school at it in 1719. Either way, the Basilian circle was present in the region from the early 18th century. [3][1]
The Union met stiff resistance from the Orthodox population: in 1726 an Orthodox brotherhood with its own school arose in Sharhorod, and in 1734 a rising of the Sharhorod Cossacks under sotnyk Verlan broke out. [3]
The conscious heyday: 1782–1917
In 1782 the new owner of Sharhorod, Józef Sylwester Sosnowski, granted the Basilians, for the monastery and the school-bursa, part of the Sharhorod castle ruins and funds for construction. It was in this period that the cathedral of St Nicholas of Myra began to rise at the centre of the complex. [1][3]
The school-bursa became famous across the Right Bank: its walls at times taught up to 600 students. After Podillia joined the Russian Empire, the monastery was reformed into an Orthodox one, the school became a theological seminary, and later a theological school. In the 1840s the outstanding Ukrainian poet Stepan Vasyliovych Rudanskyi (1834–1873), future author of “Spivomovky”, studied here. [1][3]
The cathedral building with its four-column portico on the main facade was laid out back under the Basilians, who managed to raise the walls only up to the first windows; the construction was completed already under the Orthodox — in 1806–1818, modelled on St Petersburg’s Alexander Nevsky cathedral. Curiously, the portico faces not west, as the canon requires, but south — an architectural rarity visible still today. The stone wall with corner towers and the three-tier bell tower before the main facade were erected in 1848. [1][3]
From 1937 to oblivion
In 1937 the monastery was closed. In the postwar years, 1946–1963, an agricultural technical school occupied its walls, and afterwards sad oblivion reigned over the former shrine — slightly softened only when, in the early 1980s, the town museum of fine arts opened in the premises (where old icons had hung, socialist portraits now appeared). [4] Later even that museum degenerated into a mere warehouse. [4]
Revival, 1992–2000
In 1992 the complex was handed to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church — at first it served as a parish church, and from 1996 monastic life began to revive. A landmark event was the feast of St Nicholas on 22 May 2000, when monks of the Holy Dormition Pochaiv Lavra brought to Sharhorod a copy of the wonder-working Pochaiv icon of the Mother of God — the shrine that holds the central place in the monastery to this day. [2][4] A school of bell-ringers was also established at the monastery. [2]
Ensemble and shrines
- The St Nicholas cathedral (1806–1818) — a classicist church modelled on Petersburg’s Alexander Nevsky, with a four-column portico facing south. [1][3]
- The church of John the Baptist — handed to the monastery by Stanisław Lubomirski in the 18th century. [3]
- The copy of the Pochaiv icon of the Mother of God (since 2000) — the chief shrine. [2][4]
- The wall with towers of 1848 and the three-tier bell tower — half of the complex. [3]
- Mural paintings — partially preserved in the churches. [4]
Practical information
- Address: 207 Heroiv Maidanu (formerly Soborna-Lenina) St, Sharhorod; 90 km from Vinnytsia. [1][4]
- Getting there: from Vinnytsia — scheduled bus to Sharhorod; from Zhmerynka — by rail or bus via Vendychany. [4]
- Services: an active monastery; liturgies on Sundays and feasts, daily rules per the brotherhood’s schedule. [2]
- Nearby: the church of St Florian, the oldest synagogue of Ukraine in Sharhorod (1589), the Museum of Fine Arts. [4]
- Pilgrims: you may join services on patronal feasts (6/19 December, 9/22 May). [2]
Frequently asked questions
Who founded the Sharhorod monastery?
By one version — Oleksandr Konetspolskyi in 1718 (reviving it in Kalynivka); by another — Stanisław Lubomirski in 1717 (inviting the Basilians to Sharhorod). [2][3]
Why does the cathedral’s portico face south?
A rare deviation from the canon: the facade was laid out by the Basilians and finished by the Orthodox already in this form, adding uniqueness to the complex. [3]
Why is the monastery famous for a “bell-ringers’ school”?
After the 1996 revival a specialized school was organized here — one of few such in Ukraine, teaching the art of bells. [2]
Which famous person studied here?
The poet Stepan Rudanskyi in the 1840s; the Basilians’ school-bursa was famous across Podillia. [3]
What happened in Soviet times?
In 1937 it was closed; 1946–1963 an agricultural technical school occupied it, then a museum and a warehouse; in 1992 the complex returned to the Church. [4]
Conclusion
The Sharhorod monastery is a peculiar symbol of Podillian compromise: laid out by Basilians, finished by the Orthodox, turned into a technical school by the Soviets, it returned to prayer from the early 1990s, and since 2000 its guardian angel has been the copy of the Pochaiv wonder-working icon. [3][4]