Wooden Tserkvas of Carpathian Region in Poland and Ukraine

Brunary Wyżnie

Tserkva of St. Michael the Archangel

Poland / Małopolskie Province

Greek Catholic parish tserkva from 1797 (presently: a Roman Catholic church); three-section; horizontal log construction; interior: 18^th-19^th-century polychrome decoration; 18^th-century iconostasis. Representative of the West-Lemko Orthodox sacral architecture. Weather-boarding, partial shingle covering. Nave covered by a hipped roof. Chancel covered by a multi-hipped roof. Stepped roof slopes in the lower sections. Stepped boards adorned with a painted frieze with rosettes. Roofs topped with onion domes with blind lanterns. Similarly shaped helm of the chambered tower in the post-frame construction. Interior decoration: - Baroque iconostasis with a group of icons (18^th century). - Baroque side altars (17^th century) - Rococo altar (18^th century) - pulpit with painted figures of the Evangelists (18^th century). - Rococo bench with painted decoration - icons and crosses (18^th-19^th century).

Chotyniec

Tserkva of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Poland / Podkarpackie Province

Greek Catholic tserkva from ca. 1600 (presently a Roman Catholic church); nearby: relics of the former cemetery and a wooden bell tower; tserkva: horizontal log construction; porch: frame construction, weather boarding on both sides. Adjacent to the rectangular nave - the chancel, enclosed from three sides, enlarged with rectangular pastophories; on the opposite side of the nave - a square women's porch (the so-called babiniec) . The older part of the tserkva is surrounded with external arcades (soboty). Over the external arcades and the women's porch there is a half-open gallery, enclosed from above by semicircular arcades on poles. The gallery can be reached by means of external stairs adjoined to the southern wall. In the nave, sanctuary and upper chapel figural and ornamental polychrome decoration from 1735 and 1722 (most probably). On the eastern nave side: a five-tier iconostasis - most probably from 1671, partially altered in 1756, side altar from ca. 1700; the tserkva is one of the oldest wooden Greek Catholic churches in Poland, representative of a rare type of tserkvas with a gallery around the chapel.

Kwiatoń

Tserkva of St. Paraskevia

Poland / Małopolskie Province

Filial Greek Catholic tserkva from the 17^th century (presently a Roman Catholic church); three-section; horizontal log construction, shingle-covered; complete 18^th-19^th-century interior decoration. Tower with sloping walls in post-frame construction with a chamber. Nave and chancel covered by multi-tiered hipped roofs. Cupolas topped with onion domes with blind lanterns. Similarly shaped tower helm. Tserkva of an exceptionally towering body. Chancel and nave covered with false cupolaed ceilings and the women's porch - with a flat ceiling. In the passage between the nave and women's porch - a portal with a wave-shaped lintel. 18^th-century painted decoration of walls and ceilings. Interior decoration: - iconostasis painted by Michał Bogdański in 1904 - 19^th-century altar. One of the best-preserved West-Lemko church buildings, considered one of the most beautiful tserkvas in Poland.

Owczary

Virgin Mary's Care Tserkva

Poland / Małopolskie Province

Greek Catholic parish tserkva from 1653 (presently a Roman Catholic church); three-section, horizontal log construction; complete 17^th-19^th-century interior decoration. Over the nave and chancel separate triple-tiered hipped roofs, turning into slender onion domes with blind lanterns. Tower with false, weather-boarded chamber, topped with a helm of similar shape. Walls and roofs covered with shingles; towers and the helm covered with metal sheets. The western portal has an ogee arch lintel with the construction date carved on it. Nave and chancel covered with tent-like cupolas. The interior adorned with a figural polychrome decoration from 1938. Interior decoration: - Baroque iconostasis - Baroque side altars with the icons of Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Nicholas. International Europa Nostra award for renovation works. One of the most precious and best-preserved Lemko tserkvas.

Powroźnik

St. James the Less Tserkva

Poland / Małopolskie Province

Greek Catholic tserkva from the beginning of the 17^th century, refashioned at the beginning of the 19^th century (presently a Roman Catholic church); three-section; horizontal log construction; precious interior decoration from the 18^th-19^th century, iconostasis from the 17^th century. Complete shingle covering. Tower with sloping walls in post-frame construction, with a chamber and onion-like helm with a blind lantern. Nave covered with a multi-tiered tent-like cupola, ceiling over the chancel with decorative coving, sacristy covered by a barrel vault. In the sacristy a unique polychrome decoration from 1637. Interior decoration: - Baroque iconostasis - in the main altar a 17^th-century icon of Virgin Mary with Child Jesus. - Baroque side altar with a painting of Jesus at the whipping post - Rococo pulpit from 1700 - icons from 17^th-19^th century, among others the Last Judgment by Pawlenty Radyński from 1624 - a church bell, most probably from 1615.

Radruż

Tserkva of St. Paraskevia

Poland / Podkarpackie Province

Greek Catholic tserkva, built probably in 1583 (presently a Roman Catholic church); tserkva seated on a broken stone foundation, oak beam substructure quoined in overlay technique with protruding log ends, walls in the horizontal log construction. Nave with a single-tied dome topped with a cylindrical false lantern with a conical roof, half-chamber and an iron cross. Sanctuary and women's porch lower than the nave, covered by pitched roofs. Tserkva surrounded with external arcades (soboty) with pulpit-like covers. On the inner face of the building's framework wall paintings from the second quarter of the 17^th century. In 1699 an iconostasis of a separate construction was installed. In 1832 general repair works started. Complete refurbishment of the building was performed in the years 1964-66. Preserved internal decoration items were placed in the Icon Warehouse at the Castle Museum in Łańcut. The tserkva is one of the oldest wooden tserkvas on the territory of Poland.

Smolnik

St. Michael the Archangel Tserkva

Poland / Podkarpackie Province

Greek Catholic tserkva from 1791 (presently a Roman Catholic church), located in a deserted village; refurbished in 1921 (the roof slopes were covered with metal sheets); the tserkva, deserted after 1951, was renovated in 1969, which brought it back to its original form; horizontal log construction; three-section, with a northern pastophorium, with a belting on the decorated overhangs. Over the sanctuary and the nave hipped domes with curves (the nave dome with a cross tie); the women's porch covered by a barrel vault. Over the sanctuary, nave and women's porch hipped roofs with a tie, topped with chambers. Inside, the musicians' choir is situated along the western wall. The nave is higher than the other sections; eaves on one level. An icon of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary from 1748 preserved from the original interior decoration. In the upper part of the iconostasis wall a figural polychrome decoration (figures of Old Testament prophets) from the end of the 18th century, renovated in 1923 by Eliasz Decuk from Sanok. The Smolnik tserkva is one of the few preserved three-section Boyko dome tserkvas.

Turzańsk

St. Michael the Archangel Tserkva

Poland / Podkarpackie Province

Greek Catholic tserkva built in the years 1801-1803 (presently an Eastern Orthodox church); cruciform shape, with two sacristies on both sides of the chancel; five domes. Over the sanctuary, nave and women's porch octagonal domes resting on pendentives. Flat ceilings in other sections. In 1936 the tserkva was extended. The three-panel iconostasis dates from the first half of the 19^th century and the side altars - from the beginning of the 19^th century. Icons painted by J. Bakowczyk (1895). In front of the tserkva there is a three-tier bell tower (1817), topped with an onion-shaped helm. The tserkva is the oldest Lemko church building of the eastern type.

Justification of Outstanding Universal Value

At the turn of the 9^th and 10^th centuries AD, where West and East Carpathians come together, there formed a wide borderland territory populated by Polish and Ruthenian Slavic tribes. Despite different religious orientations and ideological connections, resulting from the Christianization of both communities by competing civilization centres - Rome and Constantinople, due to common roots as well as ethnic and linguistic similarities the relations continued, and resulted in the birth of a specific borderland culture, connecting the cultural heritage of East and West with pre-Christian tradition of the broadly defined Slavic territories. Undoubtedly, the latter factor fostered the preference of the communities inhabiting these territories for the wooden material, adapted to the needs of the Christian sacral architecture, which progressed with the development of settlements. It is the wooden sacral architecture which became one of the indicators of cultural uniqueness of Polish and Ukrainian Carpathians. As in no other place in the world, wooden architecture in the region of Polish-Ruthenian borderland was no secondary or marginal phenomenon compared to major artistic trends, but it was developing in its equal right with stone architecture, often taking ready-made patterns from it. The basic cause - beside the pre-Christian Slavic building tradition - was an unusual abundance of high-quality wooden material, provided by vast forest areas. Churches constructed here were almost exclusively built in the typical horizontal log construction technique, mostly from coniferous wood, on stone foundation, and their roofs had wooden shingle covering. Traditional carpentry and construction solutions were adjusted to the needs determined by the liturgy and tradition of the Church, and thus avant-garde works were being created, ones of unique character, not existing in any other region in the world. Particularly difficult challenges faced the constructors of the temples of the Eastern rite, which were based on the characteristic type of the temple, shaped at the turn of the 5^th and 6^th centuries, with three-section interior covered with domes. The strife after perfection in relating to these ideological models became an indicator of development of this kind of construction.

The oldest wooden tserkvas preserved in the area of Polish and Ukrainian Carpathians were built in 16^th century. These temples constitute the most perfect achievements of the wooden tserkva architecture of their time, and astonish to this date with their complex construction solutions. Particularly admirable is the forming of the roofing of the nave - with the help of square-based false domes built in horizontal log construction technique, strengthened with wooden binding joists. This type is represented in tserkvas in Potylicz and Radruż, being the oldest known reflection in wooden material of the domed temple of Byzantine type in Europe. At the same time, they are a harbinger of unusual constructions from the 17^th century, developing a form of domed, almost spherical roofing, the most perfect example of it being the monumental tserkva of St. Jura in Drohobycz, and a bit smaller temple in Chotyniec. The specific character of the mountainous terrain, separated by ranges of hardly accessible summits, dense forests and wide rivers fostered the emergence of local ethnic groups with different traditions. It is this different tradition, various susceptibility to external influence and the domestic patronage that were decisive factors behind emergence of distinct local architectural types, particularly characteristic for isolated mountainous areas inhabited by Lemko, Boyko and Hutsul communities. In spite of common liturgy and reference to ideological patterns of three-section domed tserkva of Byzantine type, in the 17^th and 18^th centuries characteristic local forms were developed, which gave the tserkvas in this part of Carpathians their additional, unique character. With time, wooden tserkvas constructed on this cultural borderland adopted patterns and inspirations from the heritage of the Latin West, mostly from laterally developing wooden Roman Catholic architecture, most clearly visible in temples built by Lemko community, the body of which adopted the chambered bell towers, characteristic for wooden Catholic churches of Southern Poland. It is this variety of forms and types, the perfection of carpentry in construction solutions and stylistic differences that distinguish the architecture of tserkvas in the area of Polish and Ukrainian Carpathians from wooden sacral architecture in the rest of Europe. It constitutes a unique example of interpenetration of universal patterns, flowing from major currents of development of European civilisation, into local traditions. This bore fruit in the form of new, distinct architectural forms, which with time went beyond their home area, the example of which being the wooden tserkvas located in present North-East Slovakia, inspired by buildings from Northern slopes of Carpathians.

Satements of authenticity and/or integrity

Unique universal values of the selected group of wooden tserkvas meet the criteria of authenticity and integrity in the understanding adopted in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention and in resolutions from Nara (Japan). In particular, these are:

Authenticity of architecture, material and construction

The tserkvas proposed for the list are fully authentic monuments - in scientific, aesthetic and emotional categories. They are preserved in their historic form, owing to which they constitute a monument of significant importance. Their qualities present features characteristic for the region, and at the same time make them stand out in supra-regional scale. They are elements which to a high degree integrate the cultural and environmental qualities of local landscape. The many ages of transformation did not blur their original, traditional style. They constitute an example of continuation of tradition and technology developed in the Medieval guild milieus.

Authenticity of function, content and cult

All the selected facilities have been incessantly performing their liturgical and cult function for centuries. Values of spiritual culture materialise around them, which have their universalistic references, and at the same time focusing and documenting local religious and cultural identity. They constitute a background for traditional ceremonies and rites.

Authenticity of conservation work

The interest of restorers in wooden tserkvas arose as late as in the 20^th century. Previously, they were renovated in line with style and function of the age. The existing continuity of technical tradition secured the use of the same techniques and materials. Currently used restoration principles continue the ancient methods, ensuring full authenticity of structure, detail and decor.

Comparison with other similar properties

In Ukraine, Poland, Russia or Romania, sacral architecture was developing based on various principles and in various spatial and composition forms. A part of the wooden architecture heritage of these states was entered onto the UNESCO World Heritage List, but it is clearly distinct from the tserkvas submitted for entry. Russian tserkvas (Kizhi Pogost) feature different plans of the buildings, false character and form of domes, and less detailed treatment of wood. Wooden Churches of Maramures in Romania, being very similar between themselves, they vary in plans of the buildings, and the interior space does not relate to external bodies. Of different character are also Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland. Being Roman Catholic temples, they have different structure and feature no domes. Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of the Carpathian Mountain Area are no single complex, but a combination of temples of three different rites - Roman churches (inspired by churches in Little Poland), Protestant churches (original wooden temples) and Lemko-type wooden tserkvas. Churches of Peace in Jawor and Swidnica (Silesia) and wooden stave churches (Urnes Stave Church) in Norway stem from entirely different cultures and are completely different both in construction and style. The complex of wooden tserkvas proposed for entry, being a unique cultural heritage, will fill an important gap in the traditional wooden sacral architecture of Europe currently present on the UNESCO List.