This Just Giving Page is dedicated to the memory of the Past President of Abergavenny Rotary Club Lionel Elton (1933-2023)

Who and why are we raising money for?

Abergavenny Rotary Club established connections with Jaroslaw Rotary Club in Poland close to the Ukraine Border when the war in Ukraine began on 24 February 2022. Last year we raised £5,000 from the people of Abergavenny for humanitarian relief which we sent to Jaroslaw Rotary Club.

We are focusing our efforts this year to raise funds to support 50 Ukrainian refugees who are housed in an Abbey known locally as Anna's Barracks in Jaroslaw. When three members of our Club visited Jaroslaw on a self-financing fact finding mission to Jaroslaw in June 2022, they visited this Abbey and met the displaced people who are housed there. This is featured in the Video shown above which Past President Martin Phillips PHF made of the visit.

Five members from Jaroslaw Rotary Club visited Abergavenny in August 2022 and we have developed strong bonds of friendship between the two Rotary Clubs.

We are organising a street collection in Abergavenny High Street on Tuesday 21 March 2023. The money we raise from the people of Abergavenny will be donated in full on food, medicines and other things the refugees need. The person who organises things for the displaced people in the Abbey is called David Pufelski and he visits Ukraine once every two months to deliver food and medicine packages. Recently David visited some destroyed villages near Donetsk.

Jaroslaw Rotary is extremely grateful for the financial support which was provided by the people of Abergavenny in 2022 and for the fundraising which is being organised by Abergavenny Rotary Club again in March 2023.

Photo Gallery

The photos in the Gallery tell a story in pictures from the time Russia invaded Ukraine on 23 February 2022. Abergavenny Rotary Club organises street collections in March, April and May 2022 and sends £5,000 from the people of Abergavenny to Jaroslaw Rotary Club to provide food and medical supplies for displaced Ukrainian people. Three members of Abergavenny Rotary visit Jaroslaw in June 2022 on a self-financing fact finding mission and Rotarian Martin Phillips produces the short five minute video which is shown here. Five members of Jaroslaw Rotary Club visit Abergavenny in August 2022 to cement bonds of friendship and co-operation between the two Rotary Clubs. Aid continues to arrive in Jaroslaw from all over Europe and Jaroslaw Rotary continues to play its part in distributing these much needed supplies. Abergavenny Rotary Club runs a second street collection in March 2023.

Information about the Abbey where the 50 Ukraine refugees are housed.

The monastery complex is located on Benedictine Street, on St. Nicholas Hill in Jaroslaw. It includes 9 historical buildings: the church of St. Nicholas and St. Stanislaus the Bishop, the former monastery building, the defensive walls with towers, the gate building, the chaplains' house, the guest house (known as the "devotional house"), the former female dormitory, the building at the gate and the retaining wall on Podgórze Street. The oldest buildings (the church and the monastery) date back to the 17th Century, while the youngest (the boarding school and the building at the gate) date back to the 19th century.

The founder of the church of St. Nicholas and St. Stanislaus the Bishop and the monastery was Princess Anna Ostrogska. The facilities were intended to serve the Benedictine nuns she brought from Chelmno. The church was built in 1615-1624, to replace the former wooden church of St. Nicholas. The brick monastery building was erected in 1642-1648. Also in the 17th century the complex was surrounded by defensive walls 840 meters long with eight towers. The largest of these is the Fruktow Tower, also known as the Sea Tower, which originally housed a cannon.

Benedictine nuns took care of the complex until 1782, when the Austrians took it over under the so-called "Josephine Cassation" (a result of the "Josephine reforms"). A uniform commission - "c. k. komisyi ekonomy woyskowey pod herbem cesarskim" - was located on its grounds, which gave rise to the local customary name of the monastery - Anna Casarnia (Anna's Barracks). The Austrians added a previously unrealized third wing to the monastery, erected a string of barrack buildings and stables, and rebuilt the footbridge connecting the Abbey with the nearby Corpus Christi Collegiate Church. Most of these buildings were severely damaged during World War I and were demolished between the wars as not being an original part of the site. The footbridge survived the longest, removed only during the communist period.

During World War II, the facility fell into the hands of the Nazis, who set up a prison in it. After the war, the slow reconstruction of the buildings on the abbey grounds began - their condition at the time was described as dire. For a time, the local Building School operated here, which adapted the former monastery building into a dormitory and erected several additional buildings near the Gate Tower.

In February 2022 Priests who lived in the Abbey decided to host Ukrainian refugees. Since the beginning of the War, the monastery is giving shelter to about 50 people from the Ukraine.