Sacred culture
The Strukivska Church
Church of the Ascension - one of the most perfect wooden churches in the entire Hutsul region, located in the village of Yasinya, Rakhiv district, Zakarpattia region.
The small and modest Strukivska Church is hidden away from the crowded road with tourists and cars. It takes to the center of the village from here three kilometers.
Nearby and just above the temple is an 11-meter bell tower (1813), cut from spruce logs. A carved iconostasis (19th century) with somewhat naive but sincere images of saints has been preserved - if you are lucky enough to get inside the church.
In June 2013, the Church of the Ascension (Strukivska) became one of the Ukrainian wooden churches included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. About 2,000 objects of wooden sacred architecture have been preserved in Ukraine, most of them in the West - and more than 120 - in Transcarpathia. Poland and Ukraine have decided to unite their efforts in the struggle for world recognition. The two countries submitted a joint cross-border application "Wooden Churches of the Carpathian region of Ukraine and Poland" to the UNESCO headquarters, which was supported in June 2013. As a result, 8 wooden churches from the Ukrainian side were included in the list of world cultural heritage - 4 from the Lviv region, 2 from Zakarpattia, and Ivano-Frankivsk.
Church of the Nativity (Assumption) of the Blessed Virgin, p. Dilove
The church is built of spruce beams on oak foundations, covered with shingles. In front of the western façade, there is a two-storeyed frame gallery (the second tier is now hidden behind wooden walls). The original interior of the church has been preserved!
The first mention of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin dates back to 1750. This date is not refuted by the entry in the episcopal documents of 1801. There is a legend that a long time ago there was a chapel in the tract of Maly Poderey. During the storm, lightning struck the chapel, and the bell rolled down. Where it stopped, the present church was built of spruce beams.
In the USSR in 1949 the church was closed and it gradually fell into disrepair, and in the second half of the 1960s the church was renovated and a museum of local lore was opened in it. The status of the museum saved the church and saved it from alterations. The porch with carved columns and a triangular roof is completely preserved. The towers in the form of four arched windows have also been preserved. The massive elongated basilica volume has a low square tower, covered with a four-sloped tent with a dome common in the Rakhiv region.
In 1995, on the eve of Easter, the church was returned to the Greek Catholics, and then the first service and consecration of the church took place, which was consecrated from the Assumption to the Nativity of the Virgin.
Church of the Transfiguration (Plytovatska), p. Lazeshchina
An architectural monument of national importance is the wooden Church of the Transfiguration in Plytovaty tract. It is one of the two Transcarpathian cruciform Hutsul churches. Five of its log cabins are formed by the intersection of two rectangles with an almost isosceles cross in plan.
According to one version, this temple was built in 1780, in the village of Yablunytsia (now the center of the city council of Yaremche, Vano-Frankivsk region), and in the winter of 1871 it was dismantled and transported to Plytovaty. To the southeast of it is a two-tiered bell tower. An obelisk of Glory to fellow soldiers and liberators who died during World War II has been erected.
In 1932, the old images of the iconostasis were replaced by new ones. And in 1963 the church was closed and turned into a museum. The two-story spruce bell tower and church were restored in 1971. Since 1990, the church has been operating again. The church and the bell tower form a wonderful ensemble of classical Hutsul architecture, and the roof of the architecture, in 1995, unfortunately, was covered with galvanized sheet metal.
Church and bell tower of St. Nicholas, the village of Serednie Vodiane
The Upper St. Nicholas Church in Seredny Vodyany is one of the oldest wooden churches in Potyssia and Ukraine. The oldest parts are two oak logs dating back to 1428, and the superstructure above them is probably 1600. Around 1760, the nave was covered with a trapezoidal ceiling, lancet windows, a high frame tower was built, and high gabled roofs were erected over the log cabins.
The church has an awesome wall painting, although one part is damaged and the other one -sealed. In 1601 the nave and the babinets were painted. Outstanding works of folk painting in the early 1990s were clumsily redrawn. Among the images of saints in the Babinka is a realistic portrait of "Priest Nicora" - the founder of the reconstruction of the temple. The four-tiered iconostasis, which dates from 1761, is impressive. Near the church, there is a frame bell tower under a tent roof and an interesting wooden crucifix. Since 1995, the church has been restored and belongs to the Orthodox community.