Jesuit collegium of the XVIII century (Cathedral of the Transfiguration)

A monument of architecture of national importance (security number 667 N).

Opposite to the ancient Franciscan monastery stands the complex of the Jesuit Collegium – an architectural monument of national importance. At the beginning of the XVIII century, the then headman of Kremenets Anthony Vyshnivetsky invited the monks of the Jesuit Order to the city. They settled over the market square in the old Uniate church of the Holy Spirit. Later, at the expense of Anthony and Mykhailo Vyshnivetskyi, according to the project of the architect, a Jesuit monk Pavlo Gizhytskyi, a baroque architectural complex was built during 1731-1753, consisting of the church of St. Spirit, St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Stanislav Kostka and two adjacent educational buildings. The church is three-nave with a transept and two towers on the facade. From the south and north, two educational buildings with small branches adjoin the church, forming a kurdoner in front of the main eastern facade, and a courtyard in front of the western one. The kurdoner is fenced with balustrades with decorative vases and a wrought-iron grill. The complex is the architectural dominant of the town. Even before the completion of the construction of the new monastery complex, the collegium opened its doors – it was an educational institution with the opportunity to receive secondary education, however, in connection with the cassation of the order in 1773, the collegium ceased to exist. In 1805, through the efforts of Tadeusz Chatsky, as well as with the participation of Hugo Kollontai, the Volyn Gymnasium was founded in Kremenets, which was located in the ancient Jesuit premises. The educational and material base of this institution was quite powerful: a library, classrooms, a laboratory, as well as a botanical garden. The gymnasium combined secondary and higher levels of education. In 1819 this center of education was reorganized into the Kremenets Lyceum. The best European scientists and artists worked here. After the suppression of the November uprising in 1831, Kremenets Lyceum was closed. The scientific base and the botanical garden were transported to Kyiv, teachers left. The educational buildings of the lyceum passed into the possession of the Volyn Theological Seminary, transferred from Ostroh. Since 1902, the premises of the lyceum housed the Volyn diocesan women’s school. At present, the buildings function as a humanitarian and pedagogical academy, and the church became the Church of the Transfiguration. The temple received a new artistic content, a modern iconostasis. In front of the complex, the original balustrade of the XVIII century has been preserved.