Memorial to a German Colony
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Dedication and Blessing of the Münchenthal German Colony Cemetery and Monument The Münchenthal German Colony Cemetery Blessing and Dedication has been successfully conducted and attended by a host of local and international guests. If you wish to view the event as a slide show presentation (6 segments) plus a link to the official YouTube video, please follow this link ... Dedication 2018 |
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A German Lineage ...
There is a certain small village in Ukraine today called MUZHYLOVYCHI (known as MÜNCHENTHAL by the German colonists that lived there. It was always officially MUŻYŁOWICE, not far from present day L'viv, Ukraine). This village holds a special meaning. For in this village, many can trace their ancestry to the time period of the 1780s, when many of the descendants' great-great-grandparents settled in this village when it became a German Catholic Colony (among others nearby - see MAP.) From that early time up until January 1940, many of their ancestors lived, worked, died there, and were buried (for the most part) in the nearby Roman Catholic cemetery. Therefore, the intent of this page is to honor the memory of the those ancestors that are traced back to this village.
Visitation of Our Blessed Mary Church... Location of MUŻYŁOWICE relative to City of L'viv
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Archival photo of the Visitation of Our Blessed Mary Church. Date: Unknown. Photo: Courtesy of Brian Lenius, Canada )
Archival photo of procession leaving the Visitation of Our Blessed Mary Church. Date: Around 1909-1911. Photo: Courtesy of Alfred Konrad, Stuttgart, Germany ) Many of the descendants linked to this village have walked the paths to the village's abandoned and derelict (and in ruin) Roman Catholic church (shown on left) and the nearby, but equally abandoned and overgrown, cemetery. Although still sanctified (as we believe), these two relics of the past German Catholic Colony, long forgotten, appeared as if there was some hope in restoring each to its past glory ... or at least a semblance of respectability.
) Commencing in 2001, two individuals crossed paths with a equal sense of interest in seeing these two relics restored. Together (as principals) they formed an informal partnership and devised ways to address these two items ... restore the Visitation of our Blessed Mary church and do something about the cemetery. In the end, they had the way but not the means to do anything about the church ... it was too far gone in its ruined state and beyond hope of salvaging any restoration, or even halting its further decay. That project was placed on hold (actually cancelled) for lack of funds. That project's plan may be read here ... Church Restoration.
A historical synopsis of the village of Muzhylovychi and the church may be read here ... History of Muzhylovychi (extracted from the project plan mentioned above.)
Before we leave the topic of the MUZHYLOVYCHI (or MÜNCHENTHAL / MUŻYŁOWICE) church, the reader may be interested in viewing this church in its various in-situ stages during the early visitation visits. The church images will clearly demonstrate the partnerships' interest in its restoration and the eventual reason for cancelling the project.
) Olesya Boyko(as our business representative) ) Slavko Fot(as our technical coordinator) Because there were many elements to this project, only the key segments necessary to explain our efforts, our progress, and our achievemnts will be detailed here. ) )
Using the sketches submitted, the partnership wrote a PROJECT SUMMARY, which formed the basis for project management. Before continuing with the project progress discussion, it is necessary to identify the project participants that made the project a success that it is today. Over a period of several months the partnership sent out, to a select group of people, a solicitation letter and managed to secure adequate funding to initiate serious work. The following individuals came forth and financially supported this memorial project. Although the amounts donated to this project will not be noted here, every one of these individuals' contribution was deeply appreciated. Each of these project partners became an acknowledged owner of this memorial:(if any participant is not listed, we apologize for that omission.)
) Mr. Fot, our technical coordinator, in concert with the sculptor visited several quarries to select the two types of stones to be used on the memorial ... the basic "white" stone for the memorial proper and a "black" stone to be used for the engraved plaques (to be discussed shortly.) The only way by which the results and the sculpting process may be described is by viewing images of this entire process. To that end, the gallery below should serve that purpose:
) names of families that still held a profound interest in this cemetery, either by support or visitation to the cemetery. The process was not perfect but the only logical one at hand. A sampling of the top surname occurrences (greater than 1% of all burials) on the death records is shown at left.
A complete MÜNCHENTHAL CATHOLIC CEMETERY BURIALS (1787-1905) is available here ... Burial List.
Now on to the business of designing the panel layouts, both for the surnames and the "message". The selected surnames were not laid out alphabetically (for placement optimization), were split over the three panels and in a font and font size for ease of readability. This was a crucial decision as to allow as many names as practical but still be readable when a visitor is standing within a nominal distance from the mmonument. ) The "message" engraved was a composite of many differing opinions among the people involved in this creative process. Eventually when a concensus was reached, it was decided that the "message" would be in three languages ... German (obvious), English (universal), and Ukrainian (host country.) The font and font size for the "message" was left to the discretion of the engraver so that the full text body fit within the borders of the actual panel. Lastly, a shorter "epitaph" panel (left) was conceived that dedicates this monument.
Describing the panels is pointless when a image of that panel is available. The gallery below shows all six panels ... white on black to indicate how the panel would look like when engraved on black stone. Please note, that the Ukrainian panel includes an etching of the church as it looked like in an old archival photograph.
) The culmination of many years of effort is the assembly of the monument in situ. When the spring weather cooperated and the ground was dry to support heavy equipment, the sculptor and his crew, with the support of the project coordinator, commenced with the assembly. Images below tell the entire story (unfortunately, only a few images were submitted by the coordinator.)
) In 2007, a visit was undertaken to Muzhylovychi for a first-hand look at the final monument (less panels, which were in the process of being engraved.) The gallery below shows the monument after a "one year aging".
Olexi, the contracted custodian, kept the cemetery grounds trimmed of vegetation.
) Through late-2008 and early-2009, the sculptor worked on the panel engravings. During the course of this work, our project coordinator kept the partnership apprised. Again, he sent a few images of the completed panels ... just to let them know that the quality of the engravings was as expected and that they would be mounted on the monument as soon as weather permits ... sometime in mid-spring.
) Among one of our concerns was ... "will the engraved text be highly readable, considering the depth of engraving." As seen on the left, the verbiage is very discernible, highly readable. The partnership is pleased with the results. The balance of the panels ... surnames and "messages" are shown in the gallery below.
The plaque placement may be viewed here ... Placement.
) Directional signs were mounted in key locations in the village; directing visitors to the German cemetery and written in three languages (Ukrainian, German, and English).
) Additional directional signs were mounted in key locations in the village; directing visitors to the German church ruins and written in three languages (Ukrainian, German, and English).
) An illustrated sign was installed near the church ruins providing a short history in three languages (Ukrainian, German, and English).
) An illustrated sign was installed at the cemetery entrance providing a short history in three languages (Ukrainian, German, and English).
) A local Muzhylovychi craftsman was contracted to build three benches, made with metal frames and oak slats, and install them facing three sides of the monument.
) A substantial entranceway wide enough for vehicles and obvious to the first-time visitor was constructed in the south-west corner of the cemetery. When looking into the cemetery grounds from the entryway, the memorial is centered in full view.
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