The foundations of the church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, on the Golden Hill (the inhabitants of Shchyrets call it that even today), which were rebuilt in 15th-16th c. and at the end of the 19th c. have survived, in the opinion of experts, from the times of the princes. On the hillside, possibly on the spot of the church, or behind its walls not far from the church a medieval castle was located. For the probability of the castle being located on a hill, there are tales from the locals about an underground walkway, which led from the church to the later constructed ”plebaniya” or manor house of the church. According to legend, the Tartars used this route to reach the church where the townspeople were hiding and they killed all of them. Volodymyr Vuitsyk, a Lviv scholar, who investigated the history of the church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, wrote that “in later times the blood on the walls of the church, a reminder of the tragedy, was renewed with red paint”. In 1914 behind the walls of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary Church as a result of the bombardment, the underground opened up, which supports the stories about the underground passage. Upon examination of the old church’s location, the remains of earthen embankments are visible, from the eastern side, past the walls of today’s church, at a distance of 50 m. They are almost all ploughed over with gardens of Shchyrets residents. Nativity of the Virgin Mary Churcch is surrounded by defensive walls with loopholes and a strong entrance gateway-belltower, and on the corner of the walls a round tower has been preserved, in which a chapel was later built. On the left, a priest’s building was built.
Andriy Kryzhanivskyy