The postcards shows the church of the Armenian Catholics, located at the corner of Armenian Street (Armeniergasse) and vul. Ukrainska (Dr. Reiss Gasse). It was built in style combining byzantine, romanesque and gothic elements, most likely by the architect Josef Hlavka, and consecrated in 1875 to the Apostles Peter an Paul. The oldest Armenian settlements in the southern Bukowina date back to the 14th c. After the annexation of the Bukowina by Austria in 1774, Catholic Armenians (Uniates) moved in from the Galician capital of L'viv (Lemberg) which was home to an old and significant Armenian community. An Amenian-Catholic parish was founded in 1836. The church on the postcard was built in a time when the Armenian community was not only very small but almost entirely assimilated to the Polish community of Chernivtsi. In 1910 Chernivtsi was home to 311 Armenian Catholics and 31 Armenian Orthodox. Among them were wealthy and well respected merchants and landowners. The church was the only place to cultivate and remember on own Armenian traditions and identity. It was used as a warehouse in Soviet times and serves as a concert hall today. Helmut Kusdat
