What is "pidhirtsi"

Pidhirtsi is a village of about 1000 inhabitants in the Lviv Oblast of Ukraine, located about 80 km east of Lviv, 17 km south of Brody, 60 km north west of Ternopil, at around . Known both for its castle and Basilian monastery of the Annunciation with an icon of the Mother of God.

First written mention of a fortified Ruthenian settlement, then called Plisnensk, comes from 1188 and 1233, found in chronicles from Kiev and Halych-Volhynia as well as in the Tale of Igor's Campaign. The first Basilian monastery is recorded to have been founded by a princess named Helen in 1180. In the 15th century it is referred to by the present day name and in 1440 granted by king Ladislaus III of Poland to its tenant, the Podhorecki noble family. In 1635 the village was purchased by the Grand Crown Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski, who built a fortified residence there.

In 1682 it was inherited by the Sobieski family. During the first half of the 18th century the present complex of the Basilian monastery was constructed and in 1754 the icon was crowned by Pope Benedict XIV. In 1728 the castle was purchased by the Rzewuski family and expanded by Wacław Rzewuski, who also built the Roman Catholic Church of St. Joseph, consecrated in 1766. Finally from 1869 until 1939 the complex became the property of the Sanguszko family, who turned it into a museum. Pidhirtsi suffered heavily from the war and Soviet rule, and its collection was scattered among different museums in Poland and Ukraine. In 1997 the devastated castle was given to the Lviv Art Gallery and is gradually undergoing restoration. Worship in the Polish and Ukrainian languages is held in St. Joseph's Church.

In 2009 the village's Basilian monastery became the site of a schism within the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church when seven "Pidhirtsi fathers" declared the founding of the Ukrainian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church.