Rozmieszczenie obiektów sakralnych w Bieszczadach w 1938 roku i stan dzisiejszy

The distribution of sacred buildings in Bieszczady in 1938 and the present situation

Summary: The Bieszczady hills are situated in the south-eastern part of Poland being the only part of the Eastern Carpathians in Poland. For centuries the area was the Polish-Rus borderland region where two cultures - Latin and Byznatine-Rus - were interwoven. The Rus people neighboured the Poles here. Hence churches following both Eastern and Western rites were always dominant in the landscape of the Bieszczady. Orthodox churches are usually wooden, tripartite structures built on a longitudinal plan. They were constructed on hills and were surrounded by a ring of trees, and defined the local landscape with their cupolas with intricately ornamented crosses. On the other hand, the Roman Catholic churches were usually brick-built with high towers surmounted with Latin crosses, and were typical of the landscape of towns and larger rural settlements belonging to large estates. Following the records of the Przemyśl Diocese of the Latin and Greek-Catholic rites, forty eight Greek-Catholic churches and twenty Roman Catholic churches were recorded in 1938. In addition, there were six synagogues and one Evangelical church associated with German colonization which had taken place in the 18th c. No Orthodox church was recorded in the area. Members of the Roman Catholic Church were mainly Polish; Greek Catholics were mainly Rus people. As the result of geopolitical changes in the past (chiefly after 1340), the settlements in mountain regions in the 16th and the 17th c., the distribution of various types of sacred buildings was uneven (Fig. 2). The hiatus in the development of the sacred landscape of the Bieszczady was the period of World War II and events which happened after its end - the armed struggle with the Ukrainian Uprising Army, the resettling of priests and the local population in 1944 to 1946, in 1947 and 1951, and the communist regime. Only seventy nine Christian churches of those existing in 1938 have survived, but most of them were destroyed in the 1950s and 1960s. Almost all surviving churches are still in use for religious services (often the Greek Catholic rite was changed into Roman Catholic or Orthodox liturgies). Nine surviving churches are ruins. All but two synagogues were destroyed, as well as the Evangelical church. The present population of the Bieszczady consists chiefly of Roman Catholics. The majority of local residents are the Poles who came here from various parts of Poland and former residents of the Hrubieszów and Sokal area resettled under the "H-T" Action. Only a few Greek Catholics who returned here after 1956, converted to the Latin rite as a result of the suppression of the Greek Catholic Church by Poland’s communist authorities; the majority converted to the Eastern Orthodox Church because of liturgical similarities. Thirty six new churches, mostly Roman Catholic, were built after the war.
The rich religious mixture in the history of Bieszczady was expressed in the variety of a sacred buildings and their distribution and reflected the national and religious relationships of the period. Today, the population of Bieszczady is much lower than in the inter-war period. The world of the Boyko people has passed away, and as a result, there are less Orthodox and more Catholic churches. However, sacred architecture is still present in the Bieszczady as an element sanctifying their space.

Peregrinus Cracoviensis, 2004, z.15, s. 187-220.

Instytut Geografii i Gospodarki Przestrzennej UJ

ISSN 1425-1922

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