Church of Saint Mary Magdalene (Kostyol Marii Snezhnoi) stands on a small hill facing the start of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Street.
According to certain investigators the Church of Saint Mary was rebuilt from an ancient Russian church. But there is no doubt that at the close of the 13th century this was a Catholic church and the religious centre of the German colony. The plan of the church is typical of West-European ecclesiastic architecture: the somewhat squat form, a definite architectural style and modest decor – all this speaks in favour of the principles and methods of the Romanesque order. We are utterly ignorant of the initial form of the church. It had been often reconstructed in the course of centuries and particularly at the end of the 19th century when architect Yu. Zakharievich remodelled the building in pseudo-Romanesque style. This is especially notable in the murals of the interior and in the exterior ornament of the chancel.
