St Michael the Archangel Orthodox Church, Bielsk Podlaski

Set into the foundation of the south wall of this blue wooden church is a boulder carved with the date AD 1789 — the foundation stone of the present building. St Michael the Archangel Orthodox Church, known as the Old Sobor, stands at ul. Mickiewicza 36 in the centre of Bielsk Podlaski, on a site where a parish already existed in the 16th century. Behind it is a baptistery with frescoes by Jerzy Nowosielski, and the parish gave birth to a unique school of icon painters.

History: from cathedral church to Uniate rule and back

The first record of the church, which stands in the heart of the Old Town near the former castle, dates from 1563. The parish owned about 160 ha of land, and a privilege granted by Queen Anna Jagiellon in 1582 allowed it to run a hospital and almshouse. From the second half of the 16th century it was the seat of a dean and held the rank of a sobor, a principal church — hence its present name. Its lay brotherhood received a privilege for a hospital and school in 1594, blessed by Patriarch Jeremias of Constantinople. The Uniates (Eastern-rite Catholics) took over the church only in 1645, after repeated attempts by force. In 1728 a Baroque church with two towers was built here, but it was pulled down 60 years later, and in 1789 the foundation stone of the present church was laid.

Architecture

The church is built of horizontal logs and clad with boards. The nave, on a rare octagonal plan, dates from the 18th century. The main founders were the townspeople of the village of Widowo — one of them, Bazyli Białokozowicz, paid for two side iconostases in 1864, and the main iconostasis was installed in 1875. In 1913–1915, on the initiative of Fr Andrzej Jaruszewicz, a bell tower was raised above the porch. The last stage was a three-domed sanctuary with three altars — of St Michael, St Stephen and St Nicholas — begun in 1985; the enlarged church was reconsecrated in 1989. It has been a listed monument since 19 November 1976 (no. A-39).

Nowosielski and the icon school

In 1984 a four-storey parish house designed by Prof. Aleksander Grygorowicz was completed next to the church. It contains a baptistery whose decoration was designed by Jerzy Nowosielski — his frescoes can be seen here. The parish priest, Fr Leoncjusz Tofiluk, turned the house into an educational and publishing centre: from 1983 he ran icon-painting workshops, and in 1991 an icon-painting school was founded at the parish (today a post-secondary school at ul. Żwirki i Wigury 26).

What to look for

• The boulder dated 1789 in the foundation of the south wall.
• The octagonal nave — the oldest part of the church, clearly visible in its outline.
• The 1913–1915 bell tower and the three-domed sanctuary of the 1980s — three eras in one building.
• The baptistery with Nowosielski's frescoes in the parish house.

Tripto tip

This is a working Orthodox parish church with no fixed visiting hours. You can see the outside at any time; the easiest way to get inside is just before or after a service, and group visits or photography inside should be arranged with the parish. Allow 15–20 minutes to walk around it. In the centre of Bielsk you can also see the Church of the Resurrection (1833–1838, the seat of the Orthodox bishop of Bielsk since 1960, rebuilt in 2013–2014) and the former Carmelite church, converted into an Orthodox church in the 19th century and returned to Catholics in 1920.