Church of St. Paraskeva, Oleksandrivka

TheHoly Paraskevsky Church is a real decoration of the village of Oleksandrivka (formerly Shandrovo), Khust district, Transcarpathian region, an architectural monument of national importance (No. 220). The religious building crowns the wide surface of the hill and stands out as a clear silhouette against the background of low mountains.

In appearance, the church is similar to the Marmarosh Gothic churches of Sokyrnytsia, Kraynikovo, and Danylovo, but it has some of its own characteristic features. Here, verticalism is not so pronounced; a balance has been found between the vertical line of the tower with the spire and the horizontal lines of the nave and altar.

According to local legend, the first church stood in the Potik tract, and the present one is the second. It is also known that the church was moved within the village. According to Lviv researcher Andriy Kutnyi, the lower beams of the church date back to the fifteenth century, and the main building was completed in April 1753, according to an inscription on the southern façade above the porch. In 1751, two years before the restoration, and possibly the transfer, the church was described as follows: "wooden, with a tower in a very poor condition, will soon fall apart... Dedicated to St. Paraskevia".

The general composition of the forms of the Oleksandrivska church is similar to the churches in Danyliv, Kraynikiv, and Sokyrnytsia, but at the same time it has its own unique features. Here, verticalism is not so pronounced; a balance has been found between the vertical line of the tower with the spire and the horizontal lines of the nave and altar. The building judiciously crowns the wide surface of the hill and appears as a clear silhouette against the background of low mountains. Rural houses are almost invisible, and the new buildings do not make a dissonance in the patriarchal picture that has remained unchanged for several centuries. The church is a two-story, three-tiered building with a visible slope of the walls toward the middle. The oak log cabins are set on powerful foundations 9.2 meters long and 34-65 cm in cross-section. The fence covers all the log cabins. The main façade has an open porch (unlike the Gothic churches in neighboring villages). A frame tower with four towers at the base of the spire rises above. In front of the main façade of the church stands a frame, two-tiered bell tower of exquisite proportions, covered with a hipped roof.

The church is a two-story, three-tiered structure with a visible slope of the walls toward the middle. A tower with four violets at the base of the spire rises above the western log house. The main façade has an open porch with an arched gallery. In St. Alexander's Church one can see the richest, most complete, and best preserved wall paintings, executed in 1779 by master Stefan Terebelsky, and drawings by folk artists. An inscription on the western wall of the nave informs about this. Once upon a time, a log wall with an open portal separated the babynets with a flat ceiling from the nave with a high arched vault. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the passage was enlarged. The altar log cabin is fenced off by a four-row iconostasis of the eighteenth century.

Perhaps the oldest of them is the Church of St. Paraskovia in the village of Oleksandrivka, which bears clear signs of the style of the builders of the XV-XVI centuries, although it was first mentioned in a note by Mukachevo Bishop Olshansky in 1751.

In 2002, the Lviv Institute of Archeology was engaged in a partial restoration of the church, but due to lack of funding, the project was suspended.

Thevillage of Oleksandrivka (Russian: Александровка, Hungarian: Ósándorfalva, Slavic: Šandrova) is located in Khust district, Zakarpattia region of Ukraine. Its old name is Shandrova. It is located 22 km from the district center - Khust and 15 km from the Sokirnytsia railway station on the Korolevo - Velyky Bychkiv line.

The first mention of Oleksandrivka in historical documents dates back to 1390. It has long been famous throughout Transcarpathia for its brine springs, which was used instead of edible salt. In the 15th-19th centuries, rock salt was manually mined in the village. The wooden shafts of the mines have been preserved to this day.

Oleksandrivka is one of the four compactly located villages in Khust district - Sokirnytsia, Kraynikovo, Danylovo, Oleksandrivka - where unique Gothic wooden churches have been preserved.