Bernardine Monastery, Iziaslav

The church of St. Michael and Bernardine monastery is the beautiful piece of baroque sacral architecture in town of Iziaslav, Ukraine. Formerly it was a Roman Catholic monastery complex grounded in the early 17th century. Nowadays, it is prison Zamkova Correctional Colony no. 58.

On the place of present monastery there once was an Orthodox monastery of the Holy Trinity with the icon of Zaslav Madonna. It was this monastery where, with the appeal of princess Anastasiya Zaslavs'ka, the Peresopnytsia Gospels was brought into existence. The prince Janusz Zasławski was the founder of the monastery, Jakub Madlain (Giacomo Madlaina, Jakub Medleni) and Bernard Avelides were its architects. The process of building lasted through 1602–1630s. During the insurrection of Bohdan Khmelnyts'kyy the monastery complex was destroyed; later it was rebuilt in 1727–1780s. Since 1797 this was the main headquarters of the Order in Ruthenian Province. In 1841 the monastery was considered by the Russian Tsar as the "regular, of the second class"; was supposed to give shelter to the monks of the terminated units and after the death of the last one to be closed. Already at the beginning of the 20th century Russian authorities used it as the place for imprisonment of Catholic priests. In 1910 died the last monk of Bernard Order in Iziaslav; it was only in 1914 when bernardines managed to come back to their abode. After the Soviet occupation in 1920 monastery was turned into prison, which is situated there till nowadays.

The church of St. Michael is one of the one nave churches on the plan of the Latin Cross. To the south of it there is a two-storied building of monastery unit, which forms two cloisters. The typical view of this complex is formed by 2,5 stage tower.