It is an important example of the regional religious architecture from the late Counter-Reformation period. 

History

The village, owned by a prince, is first mentioned in historical records at the end of the 13th century. It passed many times from Polish to Russian and Lithuanian hands. It became a town under a foundation charter at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. The Polish-Lithuanian Union, also known as the Union of Horodło, was signed at a nearby castle in 1413. In 1411, a Dominican monastery was founded here by Aleksandra, the sister of King Jagiełło and the wife of Ziemowit. The Dominican monastery and the church were consecrated in 1425.  

Both buildings were wooden and shared some defensive fortifications with the castle. In 1500, the building and the town were burned down by the Tatars. After having been rebuilt, the church was consecrated in 1603 and burnt down again in 1648 by Cossacks and Tatars. The present-day church was built in 1739-58. Funds for its construction were mostly provided by Ambrose Strutyński, the starosta (a community elder) of Horodel and his wife Julianna. In 1783, the monastery was dissolved by the Austrian government. The monastery buildings were demolished in 1845 and some of the walls were reused in 1864 for the construction of the clergy house and the vicarage. The church was transformed into a parish church (after the parish from the demolished Church of the Holy Cross had been relocated there). In 1860, a wooden belfry was erected at the church cemetery. The church was renovated in 1824-40 and: after a fire in 1852 (the cupolas of the towers and the interiors burnt down then), in 1921, 1957, 1975 and 1986. The most recent renovation has lasted since 2005.

Description

The church complex is situated on a small escarpment in the south-eastern corner of the former market square. Its western side is adjacent to the former Orthodox church parish. It is a late Baroque brick church with a chancel facing south. It was erected on a plan comprising a single-nave, two-bay core building and a slightly narrower and lower, single-bay chancel, terminated inside on three sides. On each side of the chancel, there are two lower spaces: chapels from the north (the eastern part is now converted into a church porch) and a sacristy from the south (on the eastern side), as well as a treasury. In-between, there are two cylindrical towers with staircases.

At the front (north), there are two towers placed diagonally and some distance away from the corners of the nave, which – according to Professor Jerzy Kowalczyk – was intended to be a reference to the founder’s Sas coat, in which there are stars over the horns of the moon-crescent pointed upwards. Inside, the walls are divided by pairs of pilasters with stylized capitals, which carry the weight of the entablature with a richly profiled cornice. In the nave, between the pilasters, there are arcaded altar recesses. Side chapels open onto the chancel with arcades in profiled surrounds with keystones. In the nave and chancel, there are double barrel vaults resting on arches. In other parts of the church, there are cross vaults. A number of preserved stucco decorations from the time of the construction of the church can still be seen on the walls and vaults. The wall with a chancel opening is adorned with figures of Dominican saints and with cartouches decorated with the Sas and Junosza coats of arms of the founders of the church. The date 1758 is also inscribed there. The two-tower front elevation, uniaxial, concave, is set on a high plinth, with a wide attic at the top, with extremely plastic divisions achieved by means of multiple pilasters, contrasting entablature and profiled cornices.

On the ground floor axis, there is a rectangular entrance. Above, there is a sectional window, topped with a gable (from the mid-19th century) with a painted image of the patron of the church - Saint Jack, surrounded by volutes and flanked by classicist vases. The last storeys of polygonal towers (remodelled in the middle of the 19th century) were built on a plan resembling an isosceles cross. The side elevations are divided by pairs of pilasters set on a high plinth, which carry the weight of the entablature. The rear elevation is smooth, windowless, topped only with an entablature, with quarter-circular turrets. Window openings are terminated with a segmental arch. The roofs over the nave and the chancel are gabled. There are lean-to roofs over the annexes. The cupolas adorning the towers are in Classicist style (after 1852). They are octagonal with lanterns and sheet metal cladding. The church furnishings come from mid-18th century. They include the main, brick, architectural altar and side brick and wooden Rococo altars.

Classicist clergy house. One-story, erected on a rectangular floor plan, with an annex on its eastern side and a two-bay interior layout. It is made of bricks and covered with plaster and incorporates some walls of the former monastery. It has a hipped roof covered with sheet metal. There is a two-column porch in the front elevation, the rear elevation and the western elevation are divided by pilasters; all elevations are topped with a profiled cornice. The vicarage (fragment of the eastern wing of the former monastery) has one storey and plastered brick walls. It was erected on a square floor plan and is topped with a pavilion roof with sheet metal cladding. Inside, there are two vaulted spaces. The smooth elevations are topped with a profiled cornice. 

The belfry was built on a square floor plan. It is a wooden, post-and-frame, two-storey belfry covered with board-and-batten siding, topped with a pavilion roof clad with sheet metal.  The bell-openings are adorned with decorative mouldings. External decorative pelmets are fitted under the eaves. At the church cemetery, there is a brick chapel of Our Lady from the end of the 19th century and a Rococo sculpture of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception from the 2nd quarter of the 18th century. 

The site is open to visitors.

compiled by Bożena Stanek-Lebioda, National Institute of Cultural Heritage, Branch Office in Lublin, 22 June 2016

Bibliography

• Górak J., Miasta i miasteczka Zamojszczyzny, Zamość, 1990, pp. 43-46.
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, volume VIII: Województwo lubelskie, issue 6: Powiat hrubieszowski, Warsaw 1964, pp. 14-17.
• Kowalczyk J., Architektura sakralna między Wisłą a Bugiem w okresie późnego baroku, [in:] Dzieje Lubelszczyzny, vol. VI. Między Wschodem a Zachodem, part III, Kultura artystyczna, ed. T. Chrzanowskiego, Lublin 1992, pp. 85, 88-90.
• Niedźwiedź J., Leksykon historyczny miejscowości dawnego województwa zamojskiego, Zamość 2003, pp. 168-170.
• Paździor M., Kościół i klasztor podominikański w Horodle nad Bugiem, “Kwartalnik Architektury i Urbanistyki”, 1993, issue 1, pp. 41-54.
• http://www.diecezja.zamojskolubaczowska.pl/parafia,64