Court of Appeal “returns” UOC Cathedral in Kremenets to the state

Cathedral of the UOC in honor of St. Nicholas in Kremenets. Photo: upload.wikimedia.org

On October 2, 2023, the Western Appellate Commercial Court upheld the decision of the Economic Court of Ternopil Region dated June 15, concerning the "return" of the St. Nicholas Cathedral of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the city of Kremenets to the Kremenets-Pochaiv State Historical and Architectural Reserve. This information was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy.

According to the court's ruling, the congregation of the St. Nicholas parish should vacate the cathedral, which includes cells dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries, with a total area of 1,756 square meters.

As previously reported by the UOJ, the St. Nicholas Cathedral has been under the ownership of the Orthodox community since 1832, with the successor being the St. Nicholas parish, officially registered in 1991. Ten years later, in 2001, the Kremenets-Pochaiv Reserve was established, and it was granted operational management rights over nationalized church property. In 2018, the UOC parish signed an agreement with the reserve for the free use of the cathedral. In February 2023, the agreement expired, and the Ministry of Culture, represented by the reserve, refused to renew the lease.

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