Wooden church in the village Bukovec

The village Bukovec (Ukr: Буковець) of the Mizhhirya area is located at the altitude of 575 meters above the sea level. It is situated at the foot of a small mountain Spleen (825 m), near Borzhavski ridge and its peak Magura-Gide (1516 m). The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Ukr: Введення Пресвятої Богородиці), which was built in 1808, stands on a hillside near the road in the center of the village.



As early as in 1751 there were two wooden churches in the village. The "lower" one, named after St. Archangel Michael, could house up to 200 people inside of it. The "upper" one, in a gully, had room for 100 believers; there were two bells and several icons "of no value". Some historical materials of 1801 pointed out that the "lower" church was in good condition, while the "upper" one was on the brink of complete collapse. Some time later one of the churches had been given as a gift to the village Nyzhniy Bystryy, from which it then was sold and transported to Vuchkove village. As a result, a new wooden church was built in 1808 in the center of the village in order to meet the demands of the church community. It has survived until our time.

The researchers state that there is a unique arch at the entrance to the church from the porch. Unfortunately, at the time of our visit to the church, the entrance there was closed by new lacquered wooden doors.



The gate to the church area, by the way, was closed as well, so we almost had to climb over it. Fortunately, the believers came in time and have opened to us the secret door lock. After all, according to church canons and according to the precepts nobody has the right to stand in my way to Church and, therefore, to God. But here – the locks are everywhere, even at the entrance to the territory.

Continuing the theme regarding the negative impressions about the church in Bukovec, I want to note that as recently as in 1993 the church was completely untouched, without metal and plastic.



At the moment, the original upholstery of the tower is replaced by the wooden lining, on which the Cross in two colors is laid of thin wooden log piles.



The zone under the slope of the roof, which in one level encloses the nave and altar area, is painted in burgundy color. A fence in front of the church and a small "fence" separating the porch from the church area are painted in the same burgundy color, but a bit darker. The church gazebo is covered with blue metal tiles and closed with badge on the sides. In short, the villagers have worked “well” and constructed sort of an “elegant” design of the church, which is an example of arrogance and clumsiness. But, more than a dozen years ago, the church looked very nice and beautiful.

But not everything is that bad. Fortunately, the belfry remained untouched, and appears nowadays in its original glory. When I first looked at it, I could not understand that this was the belfry. It reminded me of the defensive watchtower with narrowly "squinting" loopholes. It is just beautiful. It is a two-tiered building of a square form. It contains one huge bell and two smaller ones.



Some old crosses can be found in the grass here and there...

07.06.2010. 08:33

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