The Roman Catholic Church of the Assumption of Mary ( uk, костел Успіння Пресвятої Діви Марії) was a church located on the corner of the ''Commercial'' ''Street'' ( uk, вулиця Торгова, label= ukr) and the ''Italian Street'' ( uk, вулиця Італійська, label= ukr) in the city of

Mariupol Mariupol (, ; uk, Маріу́поль ; russian: Мариу́поль) is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast (Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius River. Prior to the 2022 Russian i ...

in Ukraine, as part of the Russian

Roman Catholic Diocese of Tiraspol The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tiraspol was a Latin Rite Roman Catholic diocese on Czarist/Soviet-controlled territory in and around what is now the republic of Moldova. History It was established on 3 July 1848 as Diocese of Cherson, on Czarist ...

. The church was consecrated to the

Assumption of Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by Go ...

History

Italian Catholic settlement began in Mariupol in the 1820s. The first settlers were sea captains, followed by merchants. The Italian Church parish community was founded in 1853, after priests from German-speaking areas preached there for a long time. The Italian community received permission to build their own church from Russian Emperor Nicholas I on 15 November 1853 in a decree signed at

Gatchina The town of Gatchina ( rus, Га́тчина, , ˈɡatːɕɪnə, links=y) serves as the administrative center of the Gatchinsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It lies south-south-west of St. Petersburg, along the E95 highway which ...

. Thus it was possible to continue the construction in February 1854, which had initially begun on 5 November 1853. The funding of the construction was possible due to the sponsorship of Italian Catholics, who were active in trading primarily grain, but also citrus fruits and spices. They agreed to a voluntary tax on every quarter (210 liters) of grain they sold to build a church.Сергей БУРОВ: ''Для постройки какого храма юный Архип принимал кирпичи? ''
old-mariupol.com.ua''ЧЕТВЕРТЫЙ ДЕНЬ ЭКСКУРСИИ – 25 МАРТА ''
old-mariupol.com.ua At the time the name ''Italians'' also encompassed southern Slavic people of the Austrian Adriatic coast. The Italian consul in the city, Gerbulini, and a businessman, Stepan Membeli, promoted the starting of the project and the continued construction. The painter

Arkhip Kuindzhi Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi (; rus, Архи́п Ива́нович Куи́нджи ; ; 27 January 1841 – 24 July 1910) was a Ukrainian Landscape art, landscape Painting, painter active in the Russian Empire, of Pontic Greeks, Pontic Greek des ...

was involved in registration of the bricks, but can be eliminated as being the architect, as he was 11 years old at the time. Due to the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

the

grain trade The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals and other food grains such as wheat, barley, maize, and rice. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other ...

broke down and the construction of the church was halted. Further construction was then made possible due to a large donation from Italian King

Vittorio Emanuele II Victor Emmanuel II ( it, Vittorio Emanuele II; full name: ''Vittorio Emanuele Maria Alberto Eugenio Ferdinando Tommaso di House of Savoy, Savoia''; 14 March 1820 – 9 January 1878) was Kingdom of Sardinia, King of Sardinia from 1849 until 17 Marc ...

. Construction was completed in 1860. The first service was on 18 October 1860, attended by Bishop

Wincenty Lipski Wincenty Lipski (born March 17, 1795 in Łozowica; died December 13, 1875 in Saratov) was a Polish Roman Catholic priest, auxiliary bishop of the Russian Roman Catholic Diocese of Tiraspol from 1857–1875, and apostolic administrator of that di ...

, the auxiliary bishop of the

. As the church was the only Catholic church in the city for a long time, it was only referred to as ''The Catholic Church (').'' In addition the church was known as ''The Italian Church'', even long time after the decline of the Italian community. As of 1919, the church had 3,500 parishioners, most of whom were not Italian. The church was destroyed by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

upon urge of the ''Union of the Godless of Ukraine'' ( uk, Спілка войовничих безвірників України, label= ukr), who belonged to the

League of Militant Atheists The League of Militant Atheists (), also Society of the Godless () or Union of the Godless (), was an atheistic and antireligious organization of workers and intelligentsia that developed in Soviet Russia under influence of the ideological and c ...

. Like the Orthodox churches and the Jewish synagogue in the city, the Catholic church was looted and blown up in the early 1930s.

Literature

* Teachers of the Alexandrovsk Male Gymnasium (1892). Timoshevski, Hrihorii Ivanovych (ed.). ''Мариуполь и его окрестности'' (Mariupol and its Surroundings). Mariupol: Frantov Letterpress

References

{{Commonscat, Catholic Church in Mariupol 1860 establishments in the Russian Empire Roman Catholic churches completed in 1860 Buildings and structures demolished in the 1930s 1930s disestablishments in Ukraine Buildings and structures in Mariupol Italian diaspora by country 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Ukraine Assumption of Mary

History

Literature

See also

References