Armenian Church in Chernivtsi

First Armenian immigrants settled on the territory of Bukovyna in the middle of the 14^th century. But only in the 19^th century they came to Chernivtsi. At that time about 30 Armenian families lived there. First they didn’t have their own church, that’s why a sacred image of St Grygoriy Prosvitytel’ was placed in a catholic church steeling their minds.

Armenian Church had to be built. A Czech architect Joseph Hlavka was invited to take part in its building. Thereby Armenian Church was engineered by him and built in the 19^th century. It might be interesting for you that a royal family promoted building of this church. His Majesty Franz Josef Emperor of Austria allocated one thousand crowns for building of Catholic Armenian Church in Chernivtsi. Since that time Armenian Church had been under the patronage of Austrian Emperor. The church has become the centre of Armenian spirit life and united families, who were far from their homeland.

Presently Armenian Church is a real architectural masterpiece, which unites Armenian traditions with Gothic, Byzantine styles, and Romanesque. Bright interior of the church impresses! It is decorated with marble sanctuaries und unbelievably beautiful polychromatic paintings. You’ll be impressed with bright colours of interior.

There is wonderful acoustic in the church, that’s why from the beginning the church was used as a music hall, where concerts of church singing were given. Today in this church you can see both chamber and organ music halls, where magnificent evenings of classical music take place. Visit the church! You’ll hear majestic sounds of organ and sense of joy and lightness will fill your soul. These different music timbres and sounding range will create many colourful pictures in your imagination!