St. Anthony Church in Rivne

Conversion was only the way to keep a religious building from destroying in the days of "militant atheism". In the best way they become museums, which sometimes were restored. Worse matters stood with temples, they were put on storehouses. It seemed that churches turned out in the best position. Indeed, their specific architecture, the acoustics allowed to use them as organ music houses. St. Anthony Church in Rivne is one of them.

Different sources give different dates of St. Antony Church fundation. However, the current church had its predecessors. The first one, in 1548, a wooden shrine was erected on the initiative of the Princess Beata Ostrogska from Kostseleskiy family. But in 1570 it was completely destroyed by Tatars. Until 1606 no one had thought about the revival of the cloister. And again a woman - Princess Anna Ostrogska, from Shtemberg family initiated the construction. But the time has not spared this construction. And in 1773 the authorities decided to build a stone church in its place. But due to stress of money, it had been dragged out for many years. Even the Lubomirski family, owners of the city, was short of money. Only much later the started construction was resumed.

The construction of a red brick building was financed by the Charitable Foundation of Prince Roman Sangushko from Slavuta. And in 1899 a Catholic shrine was opened to parishioners. Relatively for a long time it had pleased the congregation not only with God's service, but also with the sound of a unique organ. But during the First World War the temple was damaged.

Only in 1927 the church was reconstructed. It was painted with polychromy, and new stained-glass windows were put in. Large quantity of icons had also impressed parishioners. A wooden icon of the Mother of God, donated to the Catholics of Rivne by a Lviv potter Ian Charnokazich and his wife Rosalia in 1650, was the oldest. And there were a lot of old portraits in a place where a priest received the parishioners.
The Catholic Church also served as a burial-vault for members of the princely family Lubomirski. It had not been much destructed during the Second World War, in contrast to the Soviet period.

In 1958, it was decided to be closed. By the way, according to eyewitnesses, a communist-activist who had smelted the crosses on the top of the church, several days later ended his life by suicide for unknown reason. One of the best organs in Europe was also dismantled; the crypt burial place of citizens, who have done a lot for the city and for the temple, was destroyed. The Roman Catholic priest Serafin Kashuba was exiled to Kazakhstan. The church had been exactly empty for a long time. At the end of the 20th century it was turned into a movie theater "Globe". Unfortunately, the architecture of the church was changed during its reparation: two towers were almost demolished, and much of the castle property was stolen. In 80s, the Organ Hall was organized in the church.