Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Ryboły

With its white brick walls and green domes, the Orthodox church in Ryboły carries a history that predates the 1596 Union of Brest. The present building was consecrated on 22 May 1879, but inside it keeps a much older treasure: the 17th-century Ryboły Icon of the Mother of God, venerated as miraculous for centuries. It is the main church of an Orthodox parish covering eight villages in the Zabłudów district.

Three churches on one site

The first, wooden church stood in Ryboły before the Union of Brest; by the 18th century it was Greek Catholic and, being in poor repair, was pulled down between 1791 and 1793. Its wooden successor, built in 1792–1795 on an octagonal plan with a tall tower over the entrance, is where parish priest Lew Markiewicz installed an iconostasis in the 1830s – according to historians the first in a Greek Catholic church in the region – before leading the parish into Orthodoxy.

In the early 1870s the parish decided to build in brick. The state paid for it, and local people worked at the brickworks that made the material. Borysław Rudkowski's design repeated the plan of the church in Novoberezovo; construction ran from 1873 to 1877. Timber from the demolished wooden church was reused for the cemetery church of St George, which still stands in the village.

What to see inside

• A three-tier iconostasis, gilded in 1991, with a copy of the Pochaiv Icon of the Mother of God.
• The 17th-century Ryboły Icon of the Mother of God in a shrine in front of the iconostasis, covered with a silver revetment since 1897.
• Frescoes by Włodzimierz Wasilewicz from 1944–1946: the Resurrection in the sanctuary, Christ carrying the cross above the iconostasis, the Entry into Jerusalem over the nave door and the four Evangelists.
• A bell cast in 1950, weighing 662 kg, which incorporates the clapper of the lost bell “Julian” – the only part recovered of the bells taken east in 1915.

Did you know?

During the mass evacuation of 1915, parishioners buried some of the liturgical objects in the cemetery and by the church; they were dug up only in 1923. The church, together with its gate and wall, has been a listed monument since 1987. The village also has the “Baćkauszczyna” Museum of Material Culture, founded in 2009 in an early-19th-century former school, with traditional costumes, tools and a weaving loom from the surrounding Belarusian-speaking villages.

Tripto tip

The church is at Ryboły 102. The parish belongs to the Bielsk Podlaski deanery, but the village itself lies in the Zabłudów district near Białystok. The church is in active use and has no fixed visiting hours, so the easiest way to see the interior is during a service or after contacting the parish in advance. Allow about an hour for the church exterior, the cemetery church of St George and the museum.