Saturday, July 6, 2013

Turzańsk Wooden Tserkva - Poland

It was last month the Unesco comitte decided the new World Heritage Sites. 19 new sites were added to the list; i already had 4 of those sites and this week received another one, sent by Joanna. This wooden church is one of the sixteen Wooden tserkvas of Carpathian region in Poland and Ukraine.

Situated in the eastern fringe of eastern Europe, the transnational property numbers a selection of 16 tserkvas, churches, built of horizontal wooden logs between the 16th and 19th centuries by communities of the Eastern Orthodox and Greek Catholic faiths. They represent the cultural expression of four ethnographic groups and the formal, decorative and technical characteristics they developed over time. The tserkvas bear testimony to a distinct building tradition rooted in Orthodox ecclesiastic design interwoven with elements of local tradition, and symbolic references to their communities’ cosmogony. The tserkvas are built on a tri-partite plan surmounted by open quadrilateral or octagonal domes and cupolas. They feature wooden bell towers, iconostasis screens, and interior polychrome decorations as well as churchyards, gatehouses and graveyards. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1424/

Fot. © A. Szczerbicki
The Greek Catholic church dedicated to St. Archangel Michael (today’s Orthodox church) was erected between 1801 and 1803. In 1871, the wooden bell tower was constructed and in 1936, the church was enlarged. The church, along with few other churches that remain in the Oslawa Valley, adheres to the type of architecture that spread on the central and eastern Lemkos’ Lands in the 19th c. - in: http://www.touristlink.com/poland/the-church-complex-of-turzansk/overview.html

No comments: