SLEEP CATHEDRAL

The Cathédrale Cathedral (Assumption) is dominated by the Sommet Hill. At the foot of the façade of the cathedral, the offers a wide view of the village and hills of the surrounding area.

The cathedral of the Dormition is a legacy of the century of Catholic tutelage of the monastery (1720-1831). Built on the plans of the German architect Gottfried Hoffman between 1771 and 1783, in a style that holds both neo-classicism and baroque of Central Europe, has the image of its high beige façade wavy but framed of two towers with more linear shapes, the cathedral was designed by its Polish founder Count Nicolas Potocki as the largest church in the Greco-catholic world (uniate) of its time. After the return of laure to orthodox worship in 1831, the interior decorations of the Cathedral of the Dormition were redefined, in favour of a style more in keeping with the orthodox canons.

From the outset, the cathedral welcomes the icon «Sainte-Marie de Pochaiv», in its nave, on the right, behind the pilgrims. The light of candles shines the riza (dress) or oklad (cover), finely chiselled metal protection which covers and orne the revered icon and leaves only the faces and hands of the Mother of God and of Christ child. The heavy gold crown surrounding the icon and prolongs the brightness of the riza is a present of Pope Clement XIV (1769-1774), a sign of the benevolent response of Rome to Nicolas Potocki, the zealous protector of the monastery, which in 1773 asked for recognition by the Catholic Church of the miraculous virtues of the icon. The tomb of Nicolas Potocki is also in the cathedral.