In ancient times most part of the churches in Belarus were wooden (like the great majority of ancient Belarussian buildings).
Wooden buildings in comparison with stone ones are destroyed faster and burn easily. Therefore, when the Belarusian magnates had the means and opportunities to build durable stone churches and estates, wooden architecture faded into the background, but it was not forgotten and did not disappear. Some of them are still exist and even in operation to this day, you can see them in the list (you can find there even a Muslim mosque).
But travellers usually haven’t much time and want to see as much as possible in the short period of time. In this case the Belarusian State Museum of Folk Architecture and Everyday Life will be a good solution. You can see a lot of interesting from the life of our ancestors here, I will tell you about it next time. What concerns my today’s topic, you can see here four ancient wooden churches in one place simultaneously.
All of them are real ancient churches, which were brought from the different parts of Belarus (they were disassembled on logs and were built again in Museum).
The first chuch you meet in your way is Chapel from Karaleucy village of Vilejka district. It is not the most majestic of all and I found almost nothing about it on the Internet, but it has left the warmest memories in my soul.
It was built in Uniate period, but you can find different religions here.
For example, the Virgin at the central icon has two crowns, one of them is the crown Poland.
Or the icon of unknown Saint woman, can you imagine it in non-uniat churches?
More photos you can see here.
The second church is Church from Lognavichy village of Kletsk district. The church was built in the Uniate period in the 18th century; its main decoration is a baroque tower above the entrance. In the Church of the Intercession you can see a unique shrine - the Holy Sepulcher of the 19th century. All the icons in the church are original and have been in it since ancient times. In the interior of the church there is also a wooden sculpture, which is quite rare in Orthodox shrines.
More photos you can see here.
The third church is Church from Baran village of Orsha district. The Holy Transfiguration Church was built in Baran in 1704 as a Uniate church, after the division of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the transfer of the Uniate churches to the Orthodox, this church also became Orthodox. Though the Church is Orthodox the most icons here nowadays are Catholic, as all of them were picked in different villages.
More photos you can see here.
The last Trinity Church and Bell Tower of the 18th century from Velets village of Glubokoye district in the worst condition. The entrance is closed because of dilapidated state of the church, so you can see it only outside.
More photos of this church you can see here.
All of these churches show different architectural styles which were typical for the regions from where they had been brought. To match the local landscape, wooden churches were built in different ways in the south and north of Belarus. In the vastness of Polesie region in the South, with its spacious distances and the absence of heights, horizontal, extended temples looked organically, reminiscent of the silhouette of ships in the open sea. In the northern regions, churches were built with a vertical composition, which looked good on high ground. Such temples were perceived as landmarks in the hilly landscape.
The most of them were built as Uniate Churches like the majority of the churches of that period. Uniatism is a Christian movement based on the ecclesiastical union of various Christian Churches with the Roman Catholic Church, recognizing the supremacy of the Pope and Catholic dogma while preserving the traditions of religious worship and the use of traditional sacred or vernacular language in worship. You can see different non-canonic characteristics here: folk icons, decorations from the straw and so on, absence of strict religious rules.
The churches in Strochitsy are also interesting for their natural color. Usually wooden temples for better preservation are painted, and most often in blue. But the churches in Museum look exactly the same today as it did centuries ago.
Of course, services are no longer held here, all these churces had became the showpieces, most icons are gathered round all region and belong to different denominations (Uniatism, Orthodox and Catolicism at the same time), but you can use your imagination to see their work in old times.
P.S: This is my part of monthly topic of June initiated by Local Guide @HiroyukiTakisawa with the theme “Religious buildings or monuments”.
Feel free to check #monthlytopics on connect and join monthly topic also.
P.S.: Some more information according to @Austinelewex questions can be interesting for other readers also.
The churches in my post are really ancient, they were built as uniate, as uniatism was the main religy then (unification of national and Orthodox churches with the Roman Catholic Church) and only later when uniatism was forbidden became Orthodox or Catholic. Now the churches from my post are not working, but there are other working ancient churches in Belarus, you can see them in the list. The oldest is St. Nikita Church in Zditovo was built in 1502 and is working till now.
Ancient wooden churches are really not so big. It wasn’t necessary as the ancient towns were small enough. I don’t know about capacity of mentioned churches, but the narrowest is Church of the Holy Trinity in Dobroslavka (was built in 1758), which width of the central part is slightly more than 6 meters, and the narthex and apse are even less. Today, the building looks more like a chapel in width, but nevertheless it is a full-fledged and functioning temple.
There are modern wooden churches also. For example, Church of the Holy Trinity in Minsk, which was consecrated in 2006 or 40 meters high temple on the territiory of St Elisabeth Convent, which is the highest wooden church in Europe now (there are a lot of photos of different buildings by the link, you should find a wooden temple).
I want also mention @KateZhechko from Belarus as she is interested in taking part in monthly topic.
though I would allow you to answer.
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