The former St. Nicholas Church in Zamość as a Russian lieu de mémoire

This article aims to show the history of the Orthodox church in Zamosc based on the concept of sites of memory developed by Pierre Nora. Zamosc’s church is one of the most important yet enigmatic buildings in the town. It was built for the town’s Greek and Ruthenian communities and for a good number of years was the mainstay of Orthodoxy in the region. At the beginning of the 18th c., it was taken over by the Basilian Order, and in its interiors the statutes of the Synod of Zamosc were signed, which significantly led to the unification of the Latin Church and the Uniate Orthodox Church and the widespread Latinisation of the Eastern Rite. During the Partition period, this church was subjected to ideologisation by the Russians. For them, it was a symbol of disgrace and heresy, just like St. Nicholas’ Church in Brest, where the act of the Union of Brest was signed. The Russians did everything to reverse the memory of the synod and to make the church a new place of consolidation for the local population, as well as for the elites in Russia, who were shown Zamosc and the Chelm Land, of which it was a part, as the eternal part of the Ruthenian lands. The Zamosc Orthodox Church appeared in books, albums and postcards. It was intended both to build communion with Russia and to create a “new Rus” citizen of the Chelm Land.