St Anne's Orthodox Church in Kruszyniany

Kruszyniany is known for its wooden mosque and Tatar mizar (Muslim cemetery), but the village has been home to several faiths for centuries. On its northern edge, on the road to Łosiniany, St Anne's Orthodox church with its onion dome stands in the Orthodox cemetery. Alongside the mosque and the mizar, it shows how people of different faiths have lived side by side here for centuries.

History: from a wooden church to a masonry one

The Orthodox cemetery was probably founded around 1700; its exact date is unknown. In 1829 a wooden cemetery church was built here, which from 1958 was a chapel of the parish in Krynki. In 1981 an independent parish was established in Kruszyniany, with nearly a hundred members, and the wooden church was thoroughly renovated in 1977–1979. On 11 December 1983 it burned down. The present masonry church was built on its foundations in 1984–1985.

In 2015 the interior was renewed – iconostasis, walls and floor – and on 7 August 2015, the patronal feast, Bishop Grzegorz of Supraśl reconsecrated the church. The parish is now very small: 38 members in 2015, or 49 in 2017 according to another source.

What to see

• The building – white and rendered, with a single-ridge roof topped by a turret with a large onion dome; gabled roofs above the side windows.
• The bell cote – metal, with two bells, on the roof of the porch.
• The apse – small and semicircular, on the east side.
• The cemetery – 0.97 hectares, with Orthodox crosses among the pines.

Tripto tip

The church is a few hundred metres from the mosque, so both are easy to see on one walk. Allow 15–20 minutes for the church and cemetery; the interior mainly opens for services and the patronal feast on 7 August. Keep quiet in the cemetery and do not wheel bicycles between the graves.