Deserted Greek Catholic Church of Nankovo

About one out of the five to seven trips happens to be to the place, which leaves behind the feeling close to the state of a psychological trauma. The discouragement brought by these journeys makes me contemplate quitting my travelling activities all together. It seems that sometimes it’s really the only way I can avoid feeling the shame for how far things can really regress in my native region.

While passing through the village of Nankovo of the Khust region, we noticed an old building that remotely resembled the church. It’s found on a bit of a hill right behind the monument to the Unknown Soldier in the central part of the village.



We were very curious to find out what’s actually found behind the fence and a closer look left us speechless to say the least. The windows were all boarded up and remnants of the roof were supported by the crooked walls. The knee-tall weeds and the abandoned old cemetery found nearby didn’t exactly make the scenery anymore brighter. And as you can see, the scale of things isn’t exactly small either!



This is how the entrance looks.



This is just on the right side of the entrance. Left without any care, the walls are showing the signs of serious erosion.



An icon which was once decorating a wall inside the church is sitting right by the entrance and is close to being completely fainted.



The main set of doors is boarded up from the inside and the fine details of the decorative handle have been long erased by the rust.



This is what the main entrance to the church looks like. A hole in the door is definitely a product of an intentional kick. It’s been covered by a piece of something that seems like the squished piping.



The columns of the front wall and a little gothic window in between them reveal the overall shocking shape of the building.



The set of windows found on one of the side walls of the church.



This is the back view of the church. The deep cracks eroding the walls are quite obvious. The roof is all rusty and the crosses seen right at the front are remnants of the old cemetery.



Soon after the locals lost the interest in our exploratory activities, with a bit of effort, we managed to find a way inside through a broken window. The view of the interior was ever more depressing and only intensified the previously experienced shock. The walls were fainted and it looked as though the icons were ripped out of their usual place.



The balcony right above the entrance is quite typical for the protestant churches in general. In the upper right corner, the angels are seen to be upholding the crest of Hungary.



This is the close up of the iconostasis. The paint of the icons is long fainted and the decorative paint of the ceiling is heavily damaged. Sad.



The lower part of the iconostasis. At the left, you can see a spot where the icon used to be before it was apparently brutally axed out.

At some point the negative emotions got to be just too overwhelming and any further stay at the site was unbearable.

I must say though, during the past year and a half of our travels to remote villages, we routinely document visits to many of the regions’ old wooden churches. Mere 100 years ago there were over 800 of them but only a bit over a hundred have made it till now. Fairly recently, in 1996, the fire claimed another one in the Village of Steblivka. These trips make us realize the poor state many of our churches are in. We are fortunate to live in the truly amazing part of our country and it is very sad how we show absolutely no signs of regard and appreciation for our rich historical and spiritual heritage.

Nankovo is just another example of this trend. The holly spring, which appeared in the village back in the 17th century, and the subsequent appearance of the Icon of the Holly Mother of God triggered the construction of a Greek Orthodox Church. Since then, the locals had been very reluctant to care about the heritage of other confessions. The general mentality of the crowd here is that the traditions of the other religions are simply "none of our businesses".

As a side note. Quite recently, I happened to come across the information detailing how aggressive the Greek Orthodox Church was in their efforts to eliminate the Greek Catholic counterpart from the Transcarpatian villages in early 20s of the last century. To make a long story short, the decision for the Greek Orthodox Church to be the dominant confession of the village was arranged through a simple voting system. Suspiciously though, those voting in support of the Greek Orthodox confession would consistently outnumber the supporters of the Greek Catholic stream. The priest of the latter would then be "asked" to move to the outskirts to the village. So, in essence, the older ideals were being substituted by the newer ones quite brutally, and at the end, they too will probably be ruined….in human blood.

Update (27/01/2010): And that’s how the people of Nankovo treat the rest of their historical values: a soldier-liberator has been transformed into something in between Shrek or Hulk.

05.10.2010. 08:00

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