St Paraskeva Church in Kwiatoń: A UNESCO Lemko Wooden Church

Po polsku: Cerkiew św. Paraskewy w Kwiatoniu

Have you ever seen a church built entirely of wood and covered in shingles, with painted walls inside? The church of St Paraskeva in Kwiatoń is one of the most beautiful and best preserved Lemko churches in Poland, and it has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2013. It stands in the village of Kwiatoń in the Uście Gorlickie municipality, in the Beskid Niski hills of Małopolska. It is a long trip from Kraków, but a rewarding one if you like quiet places.

The Polish word for this kind of building is cerkiew (plural cerkwie), an Eastern-rite wooden church. The Lemkos (Łemkowie) are the highland people who built many of them in the Carpathians. This one was originally a Greek Catholic church. Today it is a Roman Catholic church.

History

The church was built in the second half of the 17th century. The year 1700 is often given as the date of construction. The tower was added in 1743, and that date was found on one of the beams of the structure.

The building has been renovated many times. The main body of the church was repaired in 1811, 1904, 1967 and in the 1990s.

After Operation Vistula (akcja „Wisła”) in 1947, the church began to be used as a Roman Catholic church, under the parish in Uście Gorlickie. This is a sensitive part of Lemko history, and I think it is worth keeping in mind when you visit.

Architecture

Kwiatoń is a model example of a Lemko church of the north-western type. It is made of wood, in log construction (zrębowa). It is oriented (with the altar end facing east) and divided into three parts.

The plan is three squares in a row: the prezbiterium (sanctuary), the nawa (nave) and the babiniec (narthex, the entrance part at the west end). Each part has its own separate roof.

The tower has sloping walls and a post construction, and it covers the walls of the narthex. Around the tower runs a zachata, a roofed skirt-like band. The whole church is covered with wooden shingles. Only the izbica (the upper part of the tower) is covered with vertical boards.

Look for the decorative frames around the windows of the sanctuary. The entrance leads through the narthex portal, which has the shape of a flattened trefoil (a three-leaf shape).

The church is surrounded by a log fence with two wooden gates. Each gate is topped with a small shingle roof and onion-shaped domes.

Inside the church

The inner walls are decorated with painted architectural and figural decoration (polichromia) from 1811. Some of the paintings imitate marble columns and cornices.

On the steps of the dome above the nave there are small angels, and above them a scene of the Transfiguration (Przemienienie Pańskie). On the ceiling of the narthex you can see a painting of the Protection of the Mother of God (Opieka Bogurodzicy).

A music gallery runs along the western part of the nave and the walls of the narthex. It has an unusual balustrade with several processional banners (chorągwie). The remaining banners are kept in the narthex, together with a 19th-century processional cross painted on both sides.

The furnishings come from the 19th and early 20th centuries. The oldest elements, in the late Baroque tradition, are from the 18th century.

An ikonostas (iconostasis, the screen of icons) from 1904 separates the sanctuary from the nave. In the sanctuary stands a 19th-century main altar. In the nave there are two side altars with icons of the Mother of God with Child (Matka Boża z Dzieciątkiem) and the Deposition from the Cross (Zdjęcie z Krzyża).

More guides: Kraków & Małopolska in English.

Łukasz, Niezwykła Małopolska