The Church of St. John the Baptist is the second historic church of Janów Podlaski, a former sanctuary of the Dominicans. The classicist building with a Tuscan portico has survived three confessional eras: it was a Catholic church, a Greek Catholic and an Orthodox church, and today it stands as an auxiliary chapel of the Holy Trinity parish. Nearby are the graves of Polish soldiers from 1920.
From the Episcopal Foundation to the Dominicans
The first church on this site was founded around 1465 by the Lutsk bishop Jan Losowicz, from whom the town took its name. At the beginning of the 17th century, the church was taken over by the Dominicans, who had just arrived in Janów. In 1667 it was completely destroyed by fire. The current building was erected in 1790–1801; according to another version, at that time only the old church was rebuilt and expanded. In 1841 and 1853 the church was repaired and enlarged, with two side altars added inside. There was a cemetery around it.
The Church and Its Return
In 1867 the Russian authorities ordered the church to be handed over to the Greek Catholics and adapted to the Eastern rite. Until then, the Janów Greek Catholic parish had a wooden church from 1793. After the liquidation of the Chełm Greek Catholic eparchy in 1875, the church was declared Orthodox, partially rebuilt in the Russian-Byzantine style, and a gate-bell tower was erected at the entrance. The Orthodox parish operated here until 1915; then the Germans arranged a field hospital in the building, and later it was used as a grain warehouse.
In 1918 the church was returned to the Catholics. After the Polish-Soviet war, Polish soldiers who fell near Celesznica were buried on the site of the old cemetery. In the interwar period, neo-Uniate services of the Byzantine-Slavic rite were also held here. The building was repaired in 2000 and 2005; now it is usually closed.
Architecture
The masonry church is oriented on a rectangular plan, partially with basements and crypts. The windows are semicircular, smaller in the presbytery than in the nave. The facade is decorated with a two-column Tuscan portico and a trefoil pediment; the roof is gabled. The gate-bell tower is brick, plastered, with a rectangular lower and square upper tier, topped with a helmet-shaped roof with a cross. It reminds that for half a century this was a church.
How to Get There
The church stands in the center of Janów Podlaski, near the market — about 22 km from Biała Podlaska via road 698. For Ukrainians, this is Poland and a passport is required. It is difficult to get inside, but the building and the soldiers’ graves can be viewed from outside. Nearby are the Basilica of the Holy Trinity and the Episcopal Castle, and one kilometer to the north — the wooden church in Stary Pawłów.
