Wysowa Zdroj

INTRODUCTION

The temple is located in the central part of this spa village, at the main intersection of roads. Two kilometers from the church there is an Orthodox sanctuary of the Covering Veil of the Theotokos, dedicated to the Most Holy Mother of God, who appeared to the three Lemkos in 1925.

HISTORY

The temple of St. Archangel Michael was built in 1779. We know this from the inscription placed on the construction beam inside the temple. From this inscription we also learn that until 1771 there was still the first, another temple in Wysowa, which was burned by the Bar confederates.

In 1874, a belfry was built, which at the beginning of the twentieth century, in 1910, was integrated into the entire body of the temple.

A traumatic event for the Lemko region was the “Vistula” action.
But the exiles, resettlements of parishioners from Wysowa Zdroj began a little earlier – in 1944, when the population was resettled to western Ukraine. Since then, the temple has stood empty.

10 years after the “Vistula” action, the population returning to the Lemko region, the Lemkos, exiled from these areas, again form an Orthodox parish. Since 1958, the liturgical life in Wysowa has been returning.

The Lemko community, after returning from exile, at the beginning of the 60s founded bells that ring to this day.

In 2008, at the Orthodox Parish in Wysowa Zdroj, the Orthodox men’s monastery was established, dedicated to The Covering Veil of the Theotokos, which at the same time extends its spiritual care over the sanctuary on the holy Mount Jawor.

In 2009, the temple in Wysowa Zdroj is legally recognized as the property of the Orthodox Church in Poland. Since then, numerous conservation and restoration works have been carried out not only of the temple itself, but also of the décor inside it.

In 2022, thanks to EU funds and the generosity of the faithful and people of good will, we completed the general renovation of the temple, including, the polychrome inside the temple, which dates from 1910, was renovated.

ARCHITECTURE

The temple in Wysowa Zdroj is one of the oldest churches in the Low Beskids. It represents the West-Lemko architectural style of the church.

The walls from the outside are covered with shingles, and the roof and domes of the church with sheet metal. In the upper part of the tower above the vestibule there are blind clock faces.

The church is a tripartite building, with a vestibule from the west, a nave and a chancel.

INTERIOR

Inside, the whole church is covered with a beautiful figural and ornamental polychrome.

On the north side of the nave there is a baroque side altar with the icon of the Theotokos.

In the church we will find an impressive collection of precision banners.

PARTICULARLY NOTEWORTHY ARE

Particularly noteworthy in the church of St. Archangel Michael deserves a nineteenth-century baroque iconostasis, although we know that some of the icons from this iconostasis – the icon of Pantocrator and the Theotokos date back to the eighteenth century.

On the walls there are two icons of Saints Vladimir and Olga and Saints Cyril and Methodius, which in 1895 were donated to the temple by Peter and Maria Kurylo.

Our attention is drawn to the nineteenth-century side altar, as well as the main altar, which is characteristic of these areas, because there is a canopy placed above it – a ciborium. This is specific and characteristic of Lemko temples.

Another treasure in the temple in Wysowa Zdroj is the Evangelion from the nineteenth century.