Assumption Church, Hlynica

The peculiarity of the Kitsman region is that almost every village has preserved old churches that are of interest to both historians and tourists. An interesting object is the Church of the Assumption, which is located in the village of Hlynitsa.

TheChurch of theAssumption was built in 1786 (according to other sources, 1798) and is quite unusual for Bukovyna architecture, especially after recent restorations that have slightly changed its shape.

The church is unusual because it bears the features of the archaic house style of Bukovynian churches, but at the same time, a three-tiered bell tower rises above the Babynets. Its last tier was made of wood, but after the restoration it was rebuilt during the period of independence and is now under tin. During the restoration, 2 decorative small domes were made of tin.

The church is an interesting example of architecture for Bukovyna. In itself, it is a three-domed, domeless church with a bell tower above the narthex. The pilasters, niches, and other decorative elements of the exterior add to the beauty of the appearance.

The Assumption Church is located in the very center of the village, 30 meters from the main road. The clayworks are located on the other side of the Prut River from the village of Dubivtsi. They are reached by a road that turns off the H-10 Chernivtsi - Ivano-Frankivsk highway. The distance to Chernivtsi is about 25 kilometers. It is convenient to travel by your own transport. Also, all buses going to Vyzhnytsia or Putyla pass through the village.

Openinghours: open only during Sunday and holiday services.

Hlynytsia (1.5 thousand inhabitants) can safely claim the title of the most romantic and musical village in Bukovyna. No other village in the region has as many legends as Hlynytsia. The first one says that during the occupation, the Turks built a castle on the top of the mountain that rises above the village, where they constantly held banquets and brought the goods they had looted from the locals. At that time, a beautiful witch girl named Florika lived in Hlynica, who was well versed in herbs and even knew how to communicate with trees and flowers. The girl decided to liberate her village from the Turks, and for this purpose she prepared a pleasant-tasting drink that had a soporific effect and was supposed to disarm the Turks. However, when Florika brought her potion to the enemies on the top of the mountain, the Turkish leader suspected something was wrong and ordered the girl to be captured. But this did not prevent the beautiful girl from realizing her plan to destroy the janissaries: Florika stretched out her arms to the sky and asked God to let the fortress, along with the Turks and the looted property, fall into the ground. And so it happened. In the morning, the inhabitants of Hlynica saw that instead of a fortress, huge hornbeams were standing on top of the mountain, which the Turks had allegedly turned into, and a spring with pure healing water was gushing out of the mountain.

The second legend says that there was a watchpost on the top of the mountain, from which one could see the towers of the Kamianets and Khotyn fortresses in good weather. When enemies approached, a fire was lit on the top. The third legend borders on reality. It is a fact that in the early nineteenth century, the local feudal lord Flondor moved several families of gifted Gypsy musicians from the Carpathians to Hlynica. They settled in the village of Fundoi, which was named after their leader. Gypsy boys willingly married local blond Ukrainian women, and the fruits of their marriages were virtuoso musicians who became famous not only in Bukovyna. The Flondors' palace in Hlynica (not preserved to this day).

According to this legend, a beautiful and unassailable girl lived in the village. The boys of Hlynica could not even dream of such a beauty. But she gave birth to a son from a gypsy whom she named Aleko. The young mother tried to do everything to make the child happy: she watched over the cradle day and night, appealed to otherworldly forces, and even went to the Carpathians to visit the wise sorcerer Taratut. Asking the fortune-teller to make the boy honored among people, the beauty tried to give him valuable gifts. But the sorcerer did not take anything, saying that he would do everything the mother asked for the child anyway. He just threw a painted handkerchief off the beautiful girl's head and conjured over her for a long time. Years passed, and the boy became a famous violinist named Aleko Tsurtsuman. The richest people of Chernivtsi and the most expensive restaurants in Chernivtsi invited the talented musician to listen to him play. And the famous Austrian composer Franz Liszt, after hearing Tsurtsuman play, fell in love with his talent. When Aleko died, ten-row orchestras played at his funeral, and so many people followed his coffin that the funeral procession stretched for several kilometers. Aleko Tsurtsuman was the first of a galaxy of outstanding Hlynica Gypsy musicians. His successor, Dodko Kerstenyuk, was fascinated by the playing of the Romanian King Charles. Another Gypsy musician from Hlynica, Alika Parashchuk, played with a whole chapel of lautars at the celebrations in honor of the anniversary of Mykola Lysenko's creative activity, organized in the Ukrainian Folk House in Chernivtsi. The Hlynky Gypsy musicians made their mark on the history of Ukrainian culture when they took part in the filming of the movie "White Bird with Black Mark", a classic of Ukrainian cinema based on the novel by the famous Ukrainian cultural and political figure Yuriy Illienko, starring the talented actor Ivan Mykolaychuk. We will get to know Mykolaychuk better when we visit his native village of Chortorya, which will be on our way. By the way, may the memory of Yuri Gerasimovich Ilyenko, who left this world yesterday, be blessed...