Church of St. John of Suceava, Vyzhenka

The most prominent attraction of the small mountain village of Vyzhenky, located in the Vyzhnytsia National Park, is the Church of Ivan Suchavsky. This magnificent example of Bukovinian wooden architecture has the status of an architectural monument of national importance.

The church was built in 1792. The legend says that in ancient times, the locals defeated a horde of Tatars crossing the Carpathians at this place. In honor of this, a small chapel stood there in memory of this event, and a wooden church was built in its place. It is not known whether this is true or not, as the village was founded only in the 18th century.

At the end of the 19th century, a difference was added to the church on the altar side, and in the 20th century, a narthex was added to the Babynets. In 1970, the monument was restored, and the church was restored to its authentic appearance. But the next reconstruction made things worse again: the shingle roof was replaced with tin. Now the church is active.

The church itself is a very interesting example of the Bukovyna school of wooden architecture. It is a transitional variant between the traditional and archaic house type of church and the more modern dome type. Next to the church, an old bell tower of original forms has been preserved - a rectangular brick structure with 4 arches for bells. The hill where the church is located offers a magnificent view of the entire village and the valley.

In the village, you should also visit another wooden St. Nicholas Church and a mikvah, a Jewish bathhouse.

The church is located on a hill in the very center of the village of Vyzhenka. The most convenient way to get there is by car, but the quality of roads in the mountains may not be the best. To do this, you need to get to Vyzhnytsia, from where you have to walk a few kilometers towards the Nimchych Pass. If you want to travel by public transport, you need to take suburban trains or regular buses from Chernivtsi to Vyzhnytsia, where you can change to a suburban bus to Vyzhenka.

Openinghours: open on Sundays and holidays.

Thevillage of Vyzhenka is one of the main tourist settlements of the Vyzhnytsia district and the center of green tourism in Bukovyna. Population (according to the last census): 1380 people. Distance to the city of Chernivtsi: 80 km. The community is proud of the Burkut spring - sulfate-iron-aluminum water.

It has been known since the XVIII century as Verkhnia Vyzhnytsia. The village is on the way to the Nimchych (Turkish Vershad) Pass (586.3 m).

From 1859 until the First World War Vyzhenka was an Austro-Hungarian resort. Around 1860, after the division of the family's inheritance, Mieczysław Rey became the owner of an estate in Vyzhenka (also Vyzhnytsia, Babnia, Chornohuzy, Rivne) in Bukovyna. The village's pride is the single-domed wooden church of Ivan Suchavskyi (1792) in the Hutsul style, the chapel in honor of the abolition of serfdom in Bukovyna in 1848 (located next to the church of St. Nicholas), and St. Nicholas Church (1920s, wooden, covered with tin).

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Vyzhenka was visited by prominent cultural figures: Yuri Fedkovych, Olena Kobylianska, Lesia Ukrainka, Ivan Franko, Vasyl Stefanyk, and Marko Cheremshyna. In 1902, Opanas Shevchukevych, a famous Ukrainian sculptor, doctor, and writer, was born here.

The poetic beauty of the Prykarpattia region, the availability of high-quality raw materials, and the natural abilities of the craftsmen contributed to the development of folk art in Vyzhenka. Traditional folk crafts include wood carving, woodworking, Easter egg making, and embroidery.

St. Nicholas Church in the village of Vyzhenka, Chernivtsi region, near the town of Vyzhnytsia, was built in 1921-1925 according to the canons of the Hutsul school of folk architecture characteristic of this area and is located in the southern part of the village on a hill, near a steep bend in the road. The church of St. Paraskeva in the village of Ust-Putyla is similar.

The wooden church of St. Nicholas is cruciform in plan, three-story, with almost identical octagonal tops over all three parts of the building. The nave has large extensions on both sides, crowned with cupolas, which creates the illusion of a five-story Galician church. Today, the church is almost completely covered with tin (except for the lowest part of the log cabins, which is painted green). The church is surrounded by a large open space, so it can be viewed from different angles. Only on the northeastern side, from the road, are there a few trees. On the north and west sides, a cemetery stretches at some distance.

Not far away is a stone bell tower, which is somewhat similar to the bell tower of the neighboring church of St. John of Suceava in the same village. The bell tower is of the wall type and consists of five columns. By the road, near St. Nicholas Church, there is a stone chapel covered with a shingle roof. According to historians, it was built in 1848 in honor of the abolition of serfdom in the Austrian Empire. Numerous inscriptions on the chapel testify to the wanderings of the peasants on the serfdom, to the heavy obligatory duties, illnesses, and all the hardships of the locals that fell to their lot in the nineteenth century. These inscriptions are popular with travelers and travelers, because the village of Vyzhenka is one of the centers of green tourism in Bukovyna.