Church of St. Paraskeva, Busk

TheChurch of St. Paraskeva is a wooden sacred building in the city of Busk, Lviv region. It is located in the historic suburb of Dovha Storona in the northeastern part of the city. The church is included in the register of architectural monuments of national importance under the protection number 441/1. The church is not permanently functioning.

It was built in 1708 in the suburb of Dovha Storona (today: Shashkevych Street) according to an inscription on the doorway to the Babynets (translation from "Inscriptions on Wooden Churches" by V. Slobodian): "Under the protection of the Holy Spirit, the church was built this year 1708, May 19 ...". Toward the end of the eighteenth century, a folk craftsman painted the drum and the upper part of the walls using the technique of glue mural painting.

The first reconstruction of the church took place in 1807, when the walls of the altar log were raised to install a new, higher altar. In 1833, the artist Vasyl Leponovych painted two canvases for the Babynets. It is possible that in the early nineteenth century the Babynets was completed without being connected to the nave. The old doors with the jambs and the porch were moved to the western side of the Babynets. In 1889-1890, the church painting was updated by the artist M. Sirskyi. In the early twentieth century, a vestry was added to the north side of the altar. In 1963, the church was granted the status of an architectural monument. In 1983, restoration work was carried out to reconstruct the original appearance according to the project of architects Mohytych I. The Babynets and the sacristy were removed, the level of the altar walls was lowered to the original mark, and the former windows were opened. Thus, the monument has been restored to the appearance of a two-story, one-story church, which originated from Old Russian rotundas.

Today the church is in a state of disrepair. In 2007, the church was even disconnected from the electricity supply to avoid a possible fire from an electrical short circuit. The roof shingles need to be replaced, as well as some of the beams, which have either rotted or been severely damaged by pests, causing holes and cracks in the walls and the church itself to lean slightly. In 2007, design and estimate documentation was prepared for the restoration of the church, but no funds were allocated for the restoration.

In 1860, Fr. Omelian Petrushevych, the father of the president of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic, Yevhen Petrushevych, was appointed the church's pastor. It is likely that the future public and political figure and president of the ZUNR was baptized in this church.

The church was built according to the canons of folk architecture of the Galician school. It is a wooden two-storeyed church. It is built of pine beams. It belongs to a rare type of centralized buildings that resemble a rotunda in their plan-spatial structure. The central octagonal log house is elongated along the east-west axis, with a faceted five-walled log house adjacent to it from the east. The central volume is covered with an octagonal hipped roof, which is placed on an octagon with two creases and is completed with a blind lantern. The central and eastern log cabins are surrounded by a roof on attached brackets. The roof is shingled. The choirs are located in the central log house above the arch.

The church is located in the northeastern part of Busk, in the former suburb of Dovha Storona, near the housing estate. It is a very interesting church, dominated by a large eight-sided nave planned on the basis of a square 8.3 m. X 8.3 m., crowned with an octagon with one fold, covered with an octagonal tent topped with a lantern with a crown. A small five-sided altar is adjacent to it from the east, and a small porch from the west.

The nave and the altar are surrounded by a roof on attached brackets. The walls of the nave consist of exposed log beams, while the roofs are covered with shingles. The roofs are also covered with shingles that need to be replaced. Outside, commemorative inscriptions are carved on the base of the main nave log and its beams.

In 2018, the external restoration of the shrine was carried out (the walls were restored, the foundations were replaced, a new foundation was made, the ceiling was replaced, and the walls were covered with shingles). Today, the Church of St. Paraskeva in Busk is a non-operational church, although sometimes parishioners of St. Nicholas Church hold services in or near the church. The church is one of the brightest examples of wooden architecture of the seventeenth century and is an architectural monument of national importance. It needed restoration.

Archaeologists have been working on strengthening the foundations. Petro Dovhan, a researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, who, together with members of the Buzhany society, is conducting an archeological study on the territory of the church, reported finding 80 ancient coins, two silver rings, and a window frame at the excavation site.