From the wooden walls which Patriarch Macarius saw (1654) to the stone church which still stands today — Miastkivka was built on the limestone that lay beneath its feet. The town which Marczyński (1823) called «porządnie z drzewa zabudowana» — «neatly built of wood» — had all of two stone structures: the fortress-kamienica and the Church of the Annunciation. Yet these two buildings tell more than hundreds of wooden huts ever could.

The Fortress

The fortress, photograph c. 1950s The oldest surviving building in Horodkivka. Two storeys, ~14×14 m, walls a metre thick. It withstood every siege and raid that destroyed the wooden town around it.

Photograph from the village archive

The oldest surviving building in Horodkivka. When Patriarch Macarius passed through Miastkivka in June 1654, Paul of Aleppo recorded: the town has «a wooden wall and a fortress». Both churches at that time were wooden — they burned and were rebuilt. The stone Church of the Annunciation would only be built 54 years later (1708). That is, Macarius's «fortress» — is the kamienica itself: the only stone structure in a wooden townlet, which endured every siege of the 17th–18th c., when wooden churches were burned by Tatars and Cossacks.

A massive two-storey building, ~14×14 m, with walls a metre thick, vaulted ceilings and a cellar. The reference catalogue Monuments of History and Culture of Ukraine dates it to the 17th c. — an architectural monument. 18th-c. visitations attest that the church had been «burned seven times by the Tatars, yet the walls survived» — meaning the stone walls of the fortress-church, which do not burn. Wooden cupolas, iconostases, roofs burned — the stone walls stood.

Once the town was no longer threatened by raids, the fortress changed function. The Topographical Description of Podolia Governorate (c. 1799) calls it «the lord's great stone [...] inn, which is known as the RATUSHA, attached to which is a cellar». The archaeologist Ipolit Zborowski (1929) already sees two separate structures: an «osteria» (from Italian osteria — an inn of a higher class) and «the former prison».

Marczyński, T. 3, p. 194 (1823) «dom murowany» — a masonry house, the remains of an old castle.

Marczyński W. Statystyczne... opisanie gubernii podolskiey. T. III. Wilno, 1823

Underground passages (discovered in 2019) — more than 50 m in length, with vaults of stone laid without cement (17th c.). They linked the kamienica with the kościół, the church and the market. This points to a unified defensive system for the townlet: the church, the kamienica and the kościół were connected not only administratively but physically as well, by underground passages.

The Church of the Annunciation

The Church of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos Of stone, with walls a sazhen thick (~2.13 m). Rebuilt in stone in 1708 by Dmytro Zelenskyi (per Lehun, 2025).

Photograph from the village archive

The first church on this site was wooden — Paul of Aleppo saw it in 1654, calling it «Vladychytsia» (the church of the Mother of God). Patriarch Macarius recorded two churches in Miastkivka: the «Vladychytsia» on the left bank of the Shumylivka and the «Nicholas's» on the right. Both were wooden.

In 1708 the Cossack Dmytro Zelenskyi — son of Colonel Mykhailo Zelenskyi, Mazepa's ally — rebuilt the church in stone. Walls a single sazhen thick (~2.13 m). Originally four-cupola. This is not a temple — it is a fortress.

Sietsinskyi, Parishes and Churches (1901), pp. 818–820 Entry No. 1031 — Miastkivka: etymology, owners, churches, 18th-c. visitations, iconostasis, schools.

Sietsinskyi Ye. Parishes and Churches of the Podolia Diocese. Issue 9. Kamenets-Podolsky, 1901

The 18th-c. visitations (which Sietsinskyi read in the kościół of Miastkivka) state: «церковь семь разъ была сожигаема татарами, но стєны ея уцєлєли» («the church was seven times burned by the Tatars, yet its walls survived»). The number «seven» may be symbolic, but the fact of repeated burning is plausible: the region lay on a Tatar raid-route, and neighbouring villages describe destructions on a massive scale. Walls a sazhen thick — they held.

The Church of the Kazan Icon

In Rotmystrivka — a village which «has always made up a single estate with the town of Miaskovka» (Sietsinskyi) — on the right bank of the Shumylivka, from ancient times, stood the wooden Church of St. Nicholas. Patriarch Macarius saw it in 1654. In 1822 it burned down with all its documents.

In its place in 1847 the stone Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God was built and consecrated. Construction dragged on for a long time — funds were lacking. Of the old Church of St. Nicholas, only the stone bell-tower survived, standing until the early 1930s.

Sietsinskyi describes a one-tier iconostasis and a particular icon on tin plate: on one side — the Mother of God, on the other — Prince St. Alexander Nevsky, «въ память освобожденія крестьянъ отъ крѣпостной зависимости» («in memory of the emancipation of the peasants from serfdom»). As of 1900 — the sole church of the Rotmystrivka parish. Still in use today.

The Roman Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception

The kościół of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Built in 1747 (Prince Józef Lubomirski), refurbished in 1785 (Bielski + Jaroszyński).

Photograph from the village archive

Of brick masonry — one of the first brick structures in the townlet. Built in 1747 by Prince Józef Lubomirski (1704–1755). Refurbished in 1785 by Antoni Bielski jointly with Mikołaj Jaroszyński.

Schematism of 1831 (Szczepaniak / DAChmO) «Ecclesia Miastkowcensis Immaculatae Conceptionis B.M.V. [...] Fundator: Illustrissimus Princeps Josephus Lubomirski [...] Reparator: Antonius Bielski.»

Szczepaniak, Schematyzm 1831; DAChmO, f. 685, op. 4, spr. 23

Marczyński (1823) writes «Kościół parafialny murowany z cegły, założony 1785 r. przez Bielskiego» — but he has in mind the refurbishment, not the original construction. The Schematism of 1831 draws a clear distinction: Fundator (founder) — Lubomirski, Reparator (restorer) — Bielski.

By 1883 the kościół had 1962 parishioners (SG). The parish encompassed not only Miastkivka but the surrounding villages as well. The parish was formally established in 1808. A filial chapel — at Dmytrashkivka.

Lost temples

Three churches of Miastkivka and Rotmystrivka did not survive to our day. All three were wooden. Each vanished in its own way: one was dismantled as superfluous, a second burned, a third — simply rotted away.

The Polozhenie-Poyasa church

The second church of Miastkivka proper — after the Church of the Annunciation. Wooden, it stood somewhere in the centre of the townlet. Around the middle of the 18th c. the Uniate dean Lubiński forcibly seized it and converted it into a Greek Catholic church.

«The Polozhenie-Poyasa church [...] was seized by the Uniate dean Lubiński and converted into a Uniate church; since there were no Orthodox parishioners at it, the Uniate priest was regarded as a vicar of the Church of the Annunciation, but enjoyed the use of all the church holdings, while the Orthodox rector «was denied everything».»

Sietsinskyi, No. 1031 (paraphrasing the 18th-c. visitations)

The conflict dragged on for decades: the Uniate priest took the land and holdings, the Orthodox rector had nothing. When the Russian Empire abolished the Union, the church lost its parishioners and its purpose. Around 1809 it was dismantled. Sietsinskyi writes that the kościół stands on its site, but this is an anachronism: the kościół was built in 1747, 62 years before the church was dismantled. → More detail: The Union in Miastkivka

The Church of St. Nicholas (Hotsulivka)

The oldest of the known churches of Rotmystrivka. It stood on the right bank of the Shumylivka, in that part of the village called Hotsulivka. Patriarch Macarius saw it in 1654 and named it «St. Nicholas» — the second church (alongside the Church of the Annunciation) which he recorded in Miastkivka.

When and by whom it was built — unknown: Sietsinskyi states plainly that no documents have survived. In 1822 the church burned with all its furnishings and ecclesiastical documents. With it perished the whole early history of the parish on the right bank. On its site in 1847 was built the stone Church of the Kazan Icon, which still stands. Of the Church of St. Nicholas only the stone bell-tower survived — destroyed in the early 1930s.

The Church of the Holy Archangel Michael (Rotmystrivka)

The second church of Rotmystrivka — it stood in another part of the village, separate from the Church of St. Nicholas. Sietsinskyi mistakenly describes them as a single sequence: as if the Archangel Michael's was «built in place of» the Church of St. Nicholas. In fact they existed simultaneously — this is confirmed by separate parish registers for 1796.

Built from the charred remains of an earlier burned church (that is, a church had burned on this site before). The parish registers run from 1764 (CDIAK f. 224, spr. 1112), which is the earliest surviving document of the parish. By 1809 — in a ruinous condition; in 1810 the consistory ordered it sealed. After the fire of the Church of St. Nicholas (1822) it remained the sole church of the parish. The last parish-register entry — 1859.

The Synagogue

Mentioned both in SG (1885) and by Sietsinskyi (1901). The parish registers of the Jewish community run from 1844. By c. 1883 Miastkivka had ~1500 Jews (SG: «half — Jews»); by 1901 — already ~3000. A separate building, unconnected to the kamienica. Where exactly it stood — unknown.

The townlet's infrastructure

Huldman (Settled Places, 1893) gives the fullest inventory of Miastkivka's infrastructure at the end of the 19th c.:

Huldman, Settled Places (1893), p. 364 Statistical entry on Miastkivka: population, school, pharmacy, factories, mills.

Huldman V.K. Settled Places of Podolia Governorate. Kamenets-Podolsky, 1893

Three water mills on the Shumylivka — a substantial hydro-engineering complex. For comparison: in 1664 (AYuZR VII.2) Miastkivka had only 2 mills (with 25 hearths). Two-hundred-and-thirty years later — 3 mills at 818 households. Mills — not only production, but also dams, which shaped the landscape of the river valley.

Schools

The first school — 1862, a church school, at the Annunciation parish. In 1881 — a single-class ministerial school (shared between Miastkivka and Rotmystrivka): 2 teachers, 51 pupils (Huldman, 1893). In 1897 — a separate literacy school for girls.

Chronology of buildings

Building materials

Marczyński (1823) records: Miastkivka has limestone, hewn stone, masonry stone, millstone, suitable «for beams and whetstones», as well as marl, clay and sand for glass. A complete inventory of building materials lay underfoot — yet people built with wood.

Marczyński, vol. III (1823), p. 188 «Miastkówka ma kamień wapienny, ciosowy, murowy młyński, na brusy oraz i toczydła sposobny, tudzież margiel, glinę i piasek do szkła.»

Marczyński W. Statystyczne... opisanie gubernii podolskiey. T. III. Wilno, 1823