How, indeed, did a Catholic church come to be built in
Siberia? Under tsarism Siberia became a place of exile for political prisoners, and among these exiled to the Irkutsk province were the participants of the Polish national liberation movement against tsarism and, in particular. of the uprising of 1863.

    In 1881 masters of the partisans settlement began work on a church to replace the wooden one which had been destroyed by fire. In 1884 the work was completed and the church committee wrote in its report: "Besides satisfying the spiritual needs of won shippers this church may become a memorial in the future."

    The church is now used as a concert hall. Its organ was made in the former German Democratic Republic and in the evenings you may listen to chorals and fugues played by famous Russian and foreign organists.