Ukrainian Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception
SW 10-31-18-W,
Winnipegosis

Designation Date: June 20, 1988
Designation Authority: The Village of Winnipegosis
Present Owner: Ruthenian Greek Catholic Parish of the Holy Acension in Communion with Rome

Because of the challenges encountered by settlers struggling to clear their land, plant a crop and endure the cold, their first churches were naturally small, and often of modest construction and adornment. By the 1920s, however, with greater prosperity, it was possible for many congregations to build larger. By the late 1920s, Ukrainian Catholics in the Winnipegosis area found that services in the small church near Cork Cliff were becoming very crowded. Thus, in 1929, plans were underway for a new church. The building was designed by Father Philip Ruh, a renowned designer whose work recalls the ornate eighteenth century Baroque churches of Kiev. Many of Father Ruh's churches for Ukrainian Catholic parishes across Western Canada have come to be called "prairie cathedrals." The Winnipegosis church is one of his finest, with a dramatic façade and towering, elegant dome.