We continue our journey through Yavoriv region in my very first column “Heritage through the pages of the past”.
“Today we will familiarize ourselves with the architectural monument of the Yavoriv district, the wooden Church of St. Paraskeva of 1638 in the village of Stariy Yar” – adds Yaroslav Kominsky. Over the centuries, the church was the center of not only the spiritual, but also the national and cultural life of the village. It was she who preserved folk traditions, language, and morals in the village. The earliest references to the church date back to 1515.
The existing wooden church was built at the expense of the community in 1638. In 1695, the church was moved to its present location, probably from the village of Pasiki Mali. On February 8, 1701, the new Polish king Augustus II confirmed the rights of the local parish priest Father Ivan Yarmolovich and his son Vasyl to the right to own the parish and church lands. In Vasyl Lev’s article “Inscriptions on the church in Stary Yazhev” it was stated that the entire wooden church of St. Paraskeva is covered with inscriptions. Among them are inscriptions that “this church was founded in 1638”, “the first Cossacks were in 1648” , “1655 was Moscow for the first time”, “1672 there were Turks”, etc. It was restored and expanded in 1746-1748. Already in 1854, the old interior paintings were painted with a chalk mixture and dark colors.
43 years later, the side chapels of St. Nicholas and the Blessed Virgin Mary were added to the nave. A holiday was established on the Feast of the Intercession, and at the same time the name of the church was changed. Since October 14, 1898, it has the name of the Protection of the Virgin. At that time, the church was covered with shingles, and only small sheets of sheet metal were nailed on the dome. Later, the whole church was covered with sheet metal. Before the First World War, the belfry that stood near the church had 12 bells. All of them were taken by the Austrian authorities for military purposes. Before the Second World War, the new iconostasis was made by the master Shchyrba from Yavorov, and it was painted by the famous artist Anton Manastyrskyi. The old iconostasis was dismantled and placed under the bell tower, from where it was taken by Lviv scientists.
In ancient times, there was a cemetery near the church, because human bones and large skulls were found when the chapels were completed, when the fence was renewed, and during other earthworks. The new cemetery further away from it could have been founded in 1840, because a fragment of a stone cross dating from that year has been preserved there. This fragment is located near the grave of Fr. Viktor Krvavych, he used to stand on a stone column near the chapel. The chapel was apparently built in 1908 and its founder could have been Andrii Buchko, because there is a stone cross with the corresponding inscription nearby. The church had 80 field morgues and 30 forest morgues.
The field was located in three large sections. In 1927, a church nursery was first organized in the village. 3 of that time nativity scenes take place annually. A special chapel was built in the yard of the church to hold the service under the open sky in the warm season. Permission for its construction was received from the Pope. In 1935, the community decided to build a new brick church. A brickyard was built on the church field behind Valkovy Horbo, where the villagers made bricks by hand using self-made equipment. Before the beginning of the First World War, about 85 thousand bricks were made for the new church. At first, they wanted to build a new church around the old one, but the construction engineer did not agree, because the designed church had a different shape than the old one.
But the beginning of World War II disrupted these plans, and the Bolsheviks transferred the burnt bricks to Nemirov, where they were used to build a school. After the war, the old church was active all the time. In 1987, the interior painting of the church was completed, the throne was redone.
The following year, the palamarka was completed and electricity was installed. In the late 1980s, the church was alternately used by the Greek Catholic and Orthodox communities, which led to conflicts. Then the Orthodox community built a separate church, which was consecrated in 1991. Today, the church is used by the UGCC community. It stands in the center of the village, by the road, on a level plot. The cross in the plan, one-story. Adjacent to its square-plan nave from the east is a narrower faceted altar, from the north and south are narrower square side arms (there are side entrances in their western walls), and from the west – also a narrower babinets. Sacristies are symmetrically attached to the altar. The building is surrounded by a porch, which at the nave and the altar rests on the protrusions of the crowns of log cabins, and at the side arms – on attachment brackets.
The side walls consist of an open painted log, the side walls are lined with painted fiberboard sheets and sheet metal. On the walls of the nursery you can see the image of St. Apostles Peter and Paul, St. Cyril and Methodius, Sts. Anthony and Theodosia of Pecherskyi. A dome with a lantern crowns the bell-shaped bathhouse, which covers the luminous figure of eight on the central cross of the nave.
The altar is covered with a five-pitched roof, the side arms and the nave are two-pitched. To the north-west of the church, a large wooden square defensive-type three-tiered belfry, measuring 5.1 m x 5.1 m, covered with a pyramidal roof, has been preserved. The entrance to the church territory through a wooden gate is covered with a gable roof, under which the date “1989” is on the pediment.
Source: V. Slobodian “Churches of Ukraine. Peremysk epa