Church of the Holy Spirit, Huklyvyi

TheChurch of the Holy Spirit is a wooden church located in the village of Huklyvyi, Volovets district, Transcarpathian region, an architectural monument of national importance (#186). The church was built at the expense of the local community in the eighteenth century in the style of the Lemko school of folk architecture from fir wood, is set on a complex foundation of river stones, and is located at the upper end of the village. Although the church is somewhat remote from the Volovets-Mizhhiria highway , it is definitely worth a visit on your way to, for example, the Shypit waterfall or Synevyr Lake, as the distance is only 1.5 km.

The church is wooden, built of spruce beams, three-story, with three log cabins of different sizes. The walls above the eaves and the roofs are covered with shingles, and the tower is covered with oak shingles. The foundation is made of river stone with clay mortar. A square tower with a two-tiered Baroque ending rises above the Babinets. The canopy, resting on the log cabin overhangs, gently covers the building from all sides and covers the porch on the western façade, which is decorated with carved posts. The door leaves are carved. The nave and the eastern part have a box vault, while the narthex has a flat ceiling. Thanks to the common roof over the three log cabins, the monument looks compact, and its three-part structure is hardly noticeable from the outside. The log walls are skillfully constructed of massive logs. The planes of the gable roof, covered with shingles, shimmer with all the shades of spruce wood. The tower with a Baroque finish is one of the most proportionally perfect of its kind. The porch pillars are profiled and the jamb is carved. The nave and the altar log cabin are covered with an arched vault, and the Babinets are flattened.

Part of the impeccable architectural ensemble is a charming slender bell tower eight meters high, the lower tier of which is log, and the upper, much longer tier is frame. A similar bell tower stood in the Lower End, at the old cemetery, but it was dismantled in the 1940s. Two ancient stone crosses have been preserved near the church. The bell tower, square in plan, was built of the same material as the church, with a chopped first tier of timber and a frame second tier. The hipped roof of the bell tower and the walls are covered with shingles.

TheHuklyva church is the oldest wooden church in the Volovets district, built in the eighteenth century of fir on a foundation of river stones, and it is one of the masterpieces of Verkhovyna. The church is surprisingly slender and proportional. Each element organically flows into the other. The possibilities of wood as a material are fully revealed here both in the expedient lines of construction and in restrained artistic accents.

Under Soviet rule, the church was closed, and as a result, its interior and unique iconostasis of 1784 remained intact. After the end of World War II, a museum of atheism was opened here. In Soviet times, the church was guarded by teacher Mykhailo Tyushka as an architectural monument, so it is largely thanks to his work that the church owes its existence to this day. In 1970-1971, the sacred building was restored. In the 80s of the XX century it was robbed. The church experienced its worst times in the 90s of the last century. It is known that in 1998-2001 the church suffered greatly from the inaction of local authorities, in particular, its shingles rotted and rain got inside, which most affected the porch, the rafters, and the corner joints of the log cabins. Only at the end of 2001, thanks to the efforts of the local community, were the roofs and the rafters covered with new shingles, and in 2002 the church was restored again.

The church interior features an old Baroque iconostasis from 1784 by the German artist Franz Peer, which is described in the Huklyve Chronicle, which was created in the village of Huklyve and served as a kind of Transcarpathian chronicle from 1660-1812. This Baroque iconostasis is characterized by certain elements of ornamentation made in the Rococo style. Its shape resembles a pyramid. The apostolic row is created in the form of steps that rise to the central icon "Christ". The iconostasis ends with the composition "Calvary". A large number of Christians constantly venerate this miracle with prayer and faith. The original work of the German artist is considered one of the best in Transcarpathia.

Not far from the church there is a slender, square wooden bell tower, which ends with a hipped roof, which, like the walls, is covered with shingles. Its height is 8 meters, the lower tier is log, and the upper, more elongated tier is frame. Two Cossack stone crosses stand near the church. The temple, together with the wooden bell tower, forms an ideal architectural ensemble, which as of 2015 again required restoration work. The sacred building is considered to be the oldest wooden church in Volovets district.

The Church of the Holy Spirit in Huklyve is a functioning church, considered to be a Verkhovyna masterpiece of wooden sacred architecture of the Lemko school, with a unique iconostasis from 1784, the church belongs to the diocese of the UOC-MP and is an architectural monument of national importance. Two churches of St. Michael in Svaliava and in the Uzhhorod Skansen are also outstanding examples of the Lemko school of construction.

From 1998 to 2001, the church fell into terrible disrepair due to the indifference of the local authorities to the cultural values. The shingles (shingles) rotted and rain poured inside. The corner joints, the crowns of the log cabins, the porch, and the overhangs suffered the most. At the cost of great community effort, in late 2001, the roofs and the rafters were covered with new shingles, but the wood of the log cabins was affected by fungus and rotted in some places.

It was with the Huklyva church that the campaign to save and draw attention to wooden churches began. At the same time, it turned out that there were very few craftsmen left who could make shingles or shingles to cover the roofs of churches. Ivan Moldovan from the village of Shcherbovets, Volovets district, made all the shingles for the roofs of the churches in Huklyve, Uklyn, Yasinia, and the new church in Velyky Bychkiv.

The church had been closed for a long time and was called the "museum of atheism," which allowed the interior and iconostasis of 1784 to remain intact. The monument was restored in 1970-1971.