Saint-Pokrov Church of the 17th century from the village of Kanora, Transcarpathia
There are many villages in the district that possess amazing treasures – sources of mineral water, ancient wooden churches, as well as virgin, almost untouched, areas of Carpathian forest. One such village is Kanora. Only it has been deprived of its wealth – the temple, which was taken and taken to Kyiv. Although this phenomenon can be considered karmic retribution for what the residents of Kanora once did to the church itself.
Indeed, the object that today is called the wooden Saint-Pokrov Church of the 18th century was delivered to the National Museum of Folk Architecture and Life of Ukraine from the village of Kanora, Volovets district. But this temple was built in 1792 in the village of Ploske, Svalyava district.
In 1926, the wealthier Kanora community bought and moved the Ploske Saint-Pokrov temple to their intermontane valley. Therefore, when in 1969 on the territory of Holosiiv district of Kyiv, in the place where the village of Pyrohiv used to be, they started building an open-air museum that would display architectural styles and utilitarian objects from different Ukrainian regions, the first candidate from Transcarpathia was precisely this temple. The logic of ethnographers and art historians was simple: it survived one move, it will survive another.
Thus the wooden church from Kanora was delivered to Kyiv and exhibited surrounded by its colleagues – the Pyatnytska Church from Zarubyntsi, the ritual oak of Perun found at the mouth of the Desna, and the Church of St. Archistrategos Michael from Dorohynka.
The Saint-Pokrov Church, delivered to the museum from the Volovets district, has the most Europeanized appearance of all the churches present in Pyrohiv. In its appearance, it resembles the austere Gothic cathedrals of the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany, rather than the neat and cheerful Slavic churches. It is built of oak logs, in three sections. Above the first rises a tall and narrow bell tower. The second section is the widest and most massive, the main part of the church. It is crowned with a low decorative turret. The third is the altar part, the smallest and most refined. The side walls and the entrance are surrounded by a covered gallery, sheltered from rain by a canopy that merges into the roof of the first and second sections. Instead of a guard of honor of spruces, oaks, firs and beeches, this church is "served" by birches and aspens growing on its designated plot.
To see one of the most attractive wooden churches of the Carpathians, an ordinary traveler does not need to go on holiday in the Carpathians. It is enough for him to visit the National Museum, which "contains" the originals of the best architectural structures of Ukraine. However, after a visit to this ethno-warehouse, thoughts come that the Saint-Pokrov Church needs restoration and rest – in Pylypets, in Kanora, and best of all in the village of Ploske, where it was originally built. In any case, its Gothic appearance would look better against the backdrop of the Carpathian mountains than among the birch trees of the Dnieper Upland.
Based on materials from the site: otdyhaem.com.ua
_