#CULTROUTE The XVII century Mariiampil Castle — a true pearl of history and spirituality in the Prykarpattia region
Mariiampil Castle, XVII century
The town of Mariiampil, or Mariia's Town, was founded at the end of the XVII century on the site of several villages – Chortopil, Vovchkiv, Bozhiy Vydok - which had existed here at various times since at least the princely era. Frequent Tatar attacks, and especially the Polish-Turkish wars of the 1670s and 1680s, led to the devastation of these settlements on the left bank of the Dnister, which belonged to the Belzhetsky family. Therefore, in 1691, King Yan III Sobieski granted a privilege to Grand Crown Hetman Stanisław Jan Jabłonowski to found a town and build a fortress in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
By 1693, the construction of the fortress was completed, and the town received the Magdeburg Law privilege from the King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The castle was built according to the popular principle of the time, “a palace within a fortress,” and the town itself, in terms of its layout, belonged to the ‘ideal cities’ of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.
After the fortress was built, Stanislav Yablonovsky ordered the Miraculous Icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, later known as the “Maryampol Mother of God,” to be transferred to the castle chapel. It is believed that the icon was painted in the 16th century by an unknown artist, possibly one of the famous Raphael Santi’s pupils. According to legend and some historical evidence, Stanislaw Jan Yablonovsky always took the Miraculous Icon with him on his campaigns as a symbol of the Virgin Mary's intercession. Later, under the successors of the Crown Hetman, the icon was transferred to the Parish Church of the Holy Trinity in 1737, and after World War II, it was taken to Wroclaw in Poland, where it is still kept today.
Stanislav Yan Yablonovsky's successors - Yan Stanislav, Yan Kajetan and Anna Yablonovsky - contributed significantly to the fortification of the castle and the development of the town. Despite Yan Stanislav Yablonovsky's infrequent visits to his ancestral residence, in 1703 he ordered the fortifications of the castle to be strengthened and a wooden church to be built in Mariiampil. His younger brother Yan Kajetan, who inherited his father's estate after his brother died in 1731, settled in Mariiampil Castle, making it the main family residence.
Striving to develop Mariiampil as a spiritual and pilgrimage centre, Yan Kayetan Yablonolvsky invited Capuchin friars to the town, who, between 1746 and 1757, built a stone church and monastery dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua with funds provided by the benefactor. According to the owner's plan, a college teaching philosophy and rhetoric was to operate at the church. It should also be mentioned that Yan Kayetan's first wife, Teresa Yablonovskaya, followed in her husband's footsteps, inviting sisters of mercy to Mariiampil in 1746 to run a school for orphaned noblewomen and a hospital for the poor.
It was under Yan Kayetan that the Mariiampil Palace took shape around 1730. Its form resembled a somewhat simplified version of the Karsinski Palace in Warsaw, built by the famous Dutch architect Tilman van Gameren. It is in the palaces built by the Dutchman and his students that the beginnings of the influence of classicism alongside baroque can be traced, and the Yablonowski Palace in Mariiampil was no exception in this context.
The greatest patron of Mariiampil, Yan Kayetan Yablonovsky, died in 1764 and was buried in the crypts of the Capuchin Church of St. Anthony of Padua. His second wife, Anna Yablonovska, who came from the Sapieha family, continued her husband's work on developing the town and residence. The young widow got the Austrian authorities to confirm all of Mariiampil's privileges. In the last third of the XVIII century, Princess Yablonovska apparently finished building the palace. At the beginning of the XIX century, during the Napoleon Wars, Mariiampil Castle was used as a fortress for the last time. In 1809, Napoleon's supporters camped in Mariiampil and resisted the Austrian army, which was shelling the town with artillery. As a result of the shelling, many buildings were damaged, including the castle, but the imperial troops still won. As a result, the Habsburgs ordered the demolition of the ancient fortress walls in Stanislav, Mariiampil, Yezupil and other cities of Galicia to prevent similar situations.
Apparently, in the 1820s, the residence was restored, but later it fell into disrepair. The new owners, the Blazheiovski family, tried to bring the palace back to life by financing renovation work, but the First World War nullified these efforts. Then, due to military actions, the palace and the remains of the castle were destroyed, and with the arrival of Bolshevik power, many historical buildings were used for purposes other than their intended ones, without respect for cultural heritage. Today, the village of Mariiampil is part of the Dubivetska territorial community, and there is a dendrological park on the castle grounds, next to which is the “Biblical Garden” with incredible views of the Dnister Valley.
This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Department of Investment Policy, Projects, International Relations, Tourism and City Promotion of Ivano-Frankivsk City Council and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.