The ensemble of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Kamianets-Podilskyi comprises the Cathedral itself, a bell tower, a triumphal gate and a Turkish minaret

The ensemble of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Kamianets-Podilskyi comprises the Cathedral itself, a bell tower, a triumphal gate and a Turkish minaret. Moreover, the Turkish minaret standing beside the Cathedral is crowned with a statue of the Virgin Mary.

In 1672 the vast army of Mehmed IV entered Kamianets-Podilskyi almost without a fight: the Polish defenders were outnumbered sixty to one. The terms of capitulation guaranteed the inviolability of sacred places, but this promise did not last even a day.

The city's principal cathedral church was reconsecrated as a mosque, and a first imam, one Yusuf Efendi, was assigned to it together with twenty assistants. Against the walls of the Polish Baroque cathedral a minaret was built, thirty-six and a half metres high: a hundred and forty-five stone steps, as steep as the arguments of a theological dispute.

The Turks remained here for precisely twenty-seven years. In 1699 they departed, leaving the minaret standing, whether out of negligence or from some unspoken architectural magnanimity.

The Poles found a use for the structure that has no parallel in world history. In 1756, under Bishop Dembowski, a three-metre statue of the Madonna, brought from Gdansk, was raised to the top of the minaret. Beneath her feet is a crescent moon. Above her head, twelve stars. Under her heel, a serpent coiling round a globe. This is a direct quotation from the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, and it could be read without difficulty: Christianity tramples Islam, standing on its own foundation.

The installation was celebrated with the ringing of bells and a cannonade. The Mother of God has looked down on the city from the summit of a Muslim minaret to this day. Kamianets-Podilskyi remains the only place on earth where this is possible.