Wooden Churches of the Carpathian Mountains # 37 - Kostryna, Ukraine

Kostryna is a small village in the north-western part of Zakarpattya region in Ukraine, close to the borders with Slovakia and Poland. The church stands at the top of a hill above the village in a clearing among the trees. New wooden steps added in 2013 lead the way up the hill from the road. The church is a fascinating example of a hybrid architectural style encompassing both Boyko and Lemko elements in its design. This is apparent in the large, dominant central tower above the nave, a feature of Boyko design, combined with the three towers descending in height from the bell tower above the entrance area, a feature of Lemko style.

The Church of the Intercession was built in 1761 and the original structure is a fine example of Boyko design. However, the addition of a taller bell tower above the entrance area in place of the original tower converted the style of the church from Boyko to Lemko, showing the dominant influence of Lemko style in this region in the early nineteenth century. This modification likely occurred around the year 1800. The largest bell in the tower was taken and melted down as part of the war effort in the Hungarian revolution of 1848, and was later replaced with a new bell in 1899.

According to some accounts the church originally stood in a nearby village and the people of Kostryna purchased it and moved it to its present location in 1703. The church has been lucky to survive until the present day; in the 1860s the villagers planned to replace the wooden church with a new stone church on the same site, but a lack of funds prevented this from happening. Enough money for a new stone church was finally collected by 1914, but the outbreak of World War One stopped construction, and following the war devaluation of the currency they had collected prevented construction of a stone church yet again.

Kostryna can be reached from Uzhgorod by elektrichka (regional train) or by marshrutka (minibus). There are several buses and trains per day travelling in each direction, so making a day trip to Kostryna from Uzhgorod by public transport is possible. The minibuses are usually very full and often uncomfortable, so the train is a more pleasant way to travel there. The beautiful mountain scenery in the region is more easily seen from the windows of the train as well.

Wooden Churches of the Carpathian Mountains # 31 - Ruský Potok, Slovakia

This small Orthodox church stands on a raised patch of ground in the centre of the village of Ruský Potok in the far northeast corner of Slovakia. The forested hills of the Poloniny National Park surround the village on three sides, and sections of the UNESCO-listed Beech Forests of the Carpathians site are also nearby.

The church was built in 1740 and dedicated to Michael the Archangel as a Greek Catholic church. Since the year 2000 it has been used by the local Orthodox church community, though services are only held on religious holidays and special occasions.

The church contains a three-section floor plan (narthex, nave and sanctuary) on an east-west axis which is typical of Greek Catholic churches found in this region. The church was built on a low stone foundation to enhance its durability.

Next to the church is a small bell tower which contains three bells. The bell tower is not part of the original church plan and was built only in 1956. The three bells it contains were originally housed in the belfry in the tower above the narthex of the church. The tower features a series of small windows, which is a unique feature among the churches found in this region.

The iconostasis in the church likely dates from the eighteenth century. Due to the narrow space available in the small nave, the icons on the far left and right are placed on the side walls at a ninety degree angle to the rest of the iconostasis. This is another very unusual feature which does not appear in any of the other churches in this region.

The church was originally surrounded by a stone wall with two entrance gates, though at present there is a wooden fence with one entrance gate leading down towards the village square. A modern church has been built within the same grounds as the original wooden church.

Ruský Potok is very difficult to reach by public transport, since no buses run to the village and just a few buses per day pass along the Snina - Ulič road four kilometres to the south. The road into the village from the Snina - Ulič main road is paved and fine for access by car or bicycle. There is a blue-marked hiking trail over the hills connecting the villages of Topoľa, Ruský Potok and Uličské Krivé, and since all three villages contain wooden churches this route makes a nice one day trek.

Wooden Churches of the Carpathian Mountains # 29 - Hunkovce, Slovakia

This photogenic Greek-Catholic church stands on a small hill next to the road in the village of Hunkovce in north-east Slovakia. There are Rusyn wooden churches in nearly every village between the town of Svidník and the Polish border, but Hunkovce's church is the only one which can be easily seen from the main road while driving past. The church was built at the very end of the 18th century, probably in 1799, and was dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin Mary.

The church has a perfect Lemko design plan, with the tallest of three towers above the narthex (entrance area), the middle one above the nave and the lowest above the sanctuary. Each of the towers features intricately detailed onion domes with large ornamented metal crosses in Baroque style placed above. The wooden structure of the building sits on a low stone foundation layer to protect it from water seepage from the ground.

There is a small Greek-Catholic cemetery on the hill surrounding the church, with several cast-iron cross markers that date from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The small shingle-roofed entrance gate beside the road is all that remains of the traditional wooden fence which once surrounded both the church and cemetery.

The village of Hunkovce saw heavy fighting in the battle for the nearby Dukla Pass in 1944; most of the houses in the settlement were destroyed, and the church suffered extensive damage to the roof and walls. It was later repaired and named a National Heritage Landmark building in 1968. At the southern end of the village there is a large World War Two German military cemetery with the graves of more than 2000 German soldiers who fought in the battle.

In 2010 the exterior of the church was fully reconstructed with new wooden siding and roof shingles (these photos were taken a few months before the restoration). The church is empty and has no interior fittings because the iconostasis and icons were removed and placed in museums in Bardejov and Svidník. No religious services are held here, since there is a modern Greek-Catholic church across the road which serves this purpose for the local villagers. If you'd still like to see the inside of the wooden church, try to find the local priest who is often in the modern church across the road.

Hunkovce is one of the easiest churches to visit in Svidník region because it is directly on the main road to the Polish border and many buses travel along this route daily. The bus from Svidník takes about 20 minutes to reach the village, and it is another 25 minutes from there to the border. After crossing the border on foot, Polish buses run from the border to the towns of Dukla and Krosno. Svidník isn't very aesthetically pleasing, but it is the most convenient place to use as a base when visiting the wooden churches in this region, and the town also has a superb outdoor folk museum and the Ukrainian-Rusyn Cultural Museum.

Wooden Churches of the Carpathian Mountains # 27 - Tročany, Slovakia

This newly restored church stands in the centre of the small village of Tročany, located south of Bardejov in eastern Slovakia. Research conducted during the past few years has confirmed that the church is much older than had been previously thought; samples taken from its wooden beams were tested and the date of its construction was found to be the end of the 15th century or the first years of the 16th century. This puts it into the same age bracket as the Roman Catholic church in Hervartov, previously believed to be the oldest surviving wooden church in Slovakia. It is among the oldest Greek-Catholic wooden churches in the entire Carpathian mountain region.

Dedicated to Luke the Holy Apostle and Evangelist, the church has a standard Greek-Catholic floor plan with a sanctuary, nave and narthex (entrance area). Above the entrance porch there is a bell tower topped with a very unusually shaped cap which looks like a candle extinguisher. A similarly shaped cap sits above the central nave, while the sanctuary has no cap or steeple attached. The bell tower contains two bells which are still in regular use during religious services. At the top of the cap of the bell tower is a simple double-barred cross, while the cap above the nave has a more decorative single-barred cross.

The interior contains a restored iconostasis from the 17th century, though it is missing some of its original features. Instead of the typical Last Supper scene placed above the middle Czar door there is the Mandilion, a picture of the face of Christ on a cloth without a crown of thorns. In the sanctuary the altar is decorated with an 18th century icon depicting the Descent from the Cross, while the preparatory table in the corner has an icon of Saint Michael the Archangel. There are small windows on the right-hand side of both the nave and the sanctuary which allow some natural light to enter.

Today the church is used by both Greek Catholics and Roman Catholics, so the interior contains some modern Roman Catholic fittings which thankfully do not detract from the beauty of the older Greek Catholic artifacts. The church has undergone several renovations throughout its history, with major work carried out in 1897, 1933 and 1968. In 2010 and 2011 the church was completely restored both inside and out with funding provided by the European Regional Development Fund as part of a cross-border project to promote economic growth and cooperation between south-eastern Poland and north-eastern Slovakia.

The key for the church is kept by a family which lives at the opposite end of the village; if you are standing at the church go left along the road, pass the turning point for the road out to the main highway, continue up the slight incline of the hill and the house is on the right, the second house past the village office. You need to open their front gate and walk up and knock on the door on the right side of the house. The family are used to opening the church every day for visitors and are very friendly (they even speak a word or two of English) and they have pamphlets and books for sale about the Greek-Catholic churches in the region.

Tročany is not serviced by regular bus transport, but it is a two kilometre walk from the village out to the main road running between Bardejov and Prešov, and there is a bus stop at the turnoff to the village where buses pass by every hour or two. Prešov is a major transport hub with train and bus connections throughout the country, while Bardejov is the best place to base yourself for a tour of the wooden churches found in its vicinity.

Wooden Churches of the Carpathian Mountains # 23 - Nová Polianka, Slovakia (now in the Outdoor Museum in Svidník)

On a hill above the town of Svidník in north-eastern Slovakia lies the Ukrainian and Rusyn Village Museum, a collection of farm buildings, windmills and other historical wooden structures gathered from the surrounding region. The highlight of the museum is the Greek-Catholic wooden church originally from the small village of Nová Polianka, a few kilometres south of Svidník.

The church was built in Nová Polianka by local craftsmen around 1766 (some sources suggest as early as 1763) and was dedicated to Saint Paraskeva. During World War II the church and the village were badly damaged, and a newer brick church built in the 1930's became the main place of worship for the villagers.

The wooden church continued to be used for services until 1960, but in 1961 its condition had deteriorated enough that it was torn down. In the 1980's plans were made to found the Ukrainian and Rusyn Village Museum in Svidník, and it was decided that the church from Nová Polianka should be fully reconstructed for the museum based on the original architectural plans.

Eighteenth-century icons and interior fittings were collected from several different Greek-Catholic churches in the region and used to decorate the interior of the rebuilt structure. The church was opened as a part of the Village Museum in 1986, and since 1993 occasional Greek-Catholic masses and other religious services have been held there.

Built from pine wood, the church has a three-section floor plan in the typical Lemko style, with three accompanying steeples and beautifully decorative wrought-iron crosses above. The steeples and crosses are arranged in height with the highest above the entrance room, the middle one above the nave, and the lowest one above the sanctuary.

The wooden walls of the interior of the original church in Nová Polianka were covered in paintings of scenes from the Bible, but these were not recreated for the church in the museum. The iconostasis dates from the early 18th century and came from a church in a nearby village. There is a royal door at the centre of the iconostasis but the deacon doors for the two side entrances into the sanctuary are missing.

Standing next to the church is a wooden bell tower with a pyramidal shingled roof and an onion-shaped steeple topped with a cross. Two bells have been installed in the tower and are rung on special occasions. surrounding the church and bell tower is a low wooden fence with a shingled top in the Rusyn style which is typical of this region of the Carpathians.

The Village Museum in Svidník is open daily except Mondays from the beginning of May until the end of October. A Rusyn-Ukrainian folk festival is held in the village museum every year in June, attracting thousands of visitors to the event. Svidník is not connected to the railway network, so the most convenient way to get there by public transport is by bus from Prešov, Košice or Bardejov. Regular buses also run north from Svidník to the border with Poland at the Dukla Pass, where it is possible to catch a bus on the Polish side to the town of Krosno.

Wooden Churches of the Carpathian Mountains # 21 - Kunčice pod Ondřejníkem, Czech Republic

This beautiful church now stands on a small hill in the village of Kunčice pod Ondřejníkem in the Beskydy region of northern Moravia. The story of its history begins far to the east in present-day Ukraine in the region of Subcarpathian Ruthenia, a territory which was part of Czechoslovakia between the two world wars in the early 20th century. It was constructed in the small Rusyn village of Hlinance at the end of the 17th century or the first years of the 18th century, and was consecrated as a Greek Catholic church dedicated to the Archangel Michael. By the early 20th century the church was in very poor condition and was replaced by a modern church in the village.

At this time the wealthy owner of a mining company in Ostrava, Eduard Šebela, approached the villagers of Hlinance and offered to buy the church and have it moved to Kunčice pod Ondřejníkem where he had his summer retreat near the Beskydy mountains. Records show that Šebela paid 24000 Czech crowns for the church, but this was likely the cost of having it dismantled and transported by rail to the site in Kunčice rather than a payment to the villagers.

Following its reconstruction in the new location in northern Moravia, the church was reconsecrated and dedicated to St. Prokop and St. Barbara, the patron saints of miners, reflecting the business interests of the new owner. The church was then used as the location for the wedding of Šebela's daughter.

By the 1980's the church was again in poor condition, but it underwent extensive renovation in the early 1990's. The interior of the church contains the original iconostasis, which was carefully restored by specialists in 1992. The church was broken into by thieves in 1994 and again in 1995, with the loss of several icons, paintings and a tabernacle.

The interior of the church can only be seen during services and other special events, but a visit to the church and its surrounding cemetery is still very worthwhile at other times. The village of Kunčice pod Ondřejníkem is reachable by train directly from Ostrava or the nearby town of Frenštát pod Radhoštěm, which has onward train connections to many parts of the Czech Republic.

Wooden Churches of the Carpathian Mountains # 19 - Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

This church is found among the trees in Jirásek park in the centre of the city of Hradec Králové, though it has only been located there for a short part of its eventful history. Originally constructed around 1510 in the small village of Habura in north-eastern Slovakia, the structure was first dedicated to Saint Michael the Archanagel as an Orthodox church. In the year 1740 it was dismantled and moved to the neighbouring village of Malá Poľana where it was rebuilt and dedicated to Saint Nicholas the Miracle-worker.

The village was predominantly Greek-Catholic, and the church served the local parish until the early 20th century. During the First World War the region surrounding Malá Poľana was heavily fought over and the church was severely damaged in the fighting. It was fully reconstructed by 1920, but by 1930 the church had been abandoned and was again in poor condition since it had been replaced by a new church in the village which was built of stone.

In 1934 the villagers were preparing to knock the church down and use its timber for other purposes, but an unexpected offer was made to save the structure. The Czech city of Hradec Králové offered to buy the church for 12000 Czechoslovak crowns, an enormous sum for the villagers at that time. During the summer of 1935 the church was again dismantled and packed onto railway cars for its journey to Hradec Králové. Following reconstruction and extensive renovations in its new location in Jirásek park, the church was inaugurated in the autumn of 1935 as a memorial to Czechoslovak soldiers who had died fighting in World War One. The temple has remained in the park ever since, and today it serves the local Orthodox parish with occasional masses still being held there.

The design of the church is in the typical Greek-Catholic Lemko style, with the tallest of the three onion-dome towers rising above the entrance area. The interior decorations have been carefully preserved, and the original iconostasis can still be seen. The church is also surrounded by a small wooden fence as it was in its former location in Malá Poľana.

Jirásek park is just a few hundred metres from the old town square in Hradec Králové, and the city is well-connected by fast train and bus links to Prague and all other cities of the Czech Republic.

Wooden Churches of the Carpathian Mountains # 18 - Nižný Komárnik, Slovakia

This beautiful church stands at the top of a tall hill overlooking the village of Nižný Komárnik, just a few kilometres from the Polish border in north-east Slovakia. Dedicated to the Protection of the Mother of God, the structure has a unique design among churches in Slovakia, since it is the only one in the country which is of the 'Boyko' style of design, more commonly seen further east in Ukrainian Galicia. The Boyko style typically has three domed towers with the highest tower placed in the centre above the nave, distinguishing it from the 'Lemko' style commonly seen in this region where the highest tower is placed above the entrance area.

Another unique aspect to this church is that its designer is well-known, the Ukrainian architect and explorer Vladimír Sičynský. All other wooden churches in Slovakia were constructed by local builders whose names have been lost to history due to the lack of official records. Sičynský oversaw the construction of the church in 1938, meaning the temple is much younger than most others in the surrounding region. The new church replaced an older baroque wooden church which was pulled down after the modern one was completed.

Another interesting feature of this temple is that it has two entrances, one on the south side leading into the sanctuary and one of the western side. The interior of the church is lit by high windows in both the sanctuary and the nave.

The iconostasis dates from the early 19th century, and it is thought that some of the icons come from the original iconostasis of the first wooden church in the village from the start of the 18th century. The iconostasis has an unusual three-row style since it was not designed for this church and had to be modified by placing the apostles and prophets higher up in the dome. To the north of the church is a large wooden bell tower with a domed roof. The bell tower was partially restored in 2003.

This is one of the most atmospheric churches in the region due to its magnificent hilltop setting above the village. Looking across the valley from the hill you can see a Russian Red Army World War Two aircraft, preserved as a monument to the intense battle for the Dukla pass which took place just north of here. The village is on the main road from Svidník to the Polish border, so buses run to the village quite frequently from Svidník. The key for the church is kept by the family who live in the house directly below the church at the beginning of the path that climbs the hill.