St Michael the Archangel's Church in Smolnik

On an empty hill above the San valley, away from today's houses, stands a lone wooden church with three tent roofs. St Michael the Archangel's Church in Smolnik, dating from 1791, is the only surviving Boyko-style church in the Polish Bieszczady and one of just three in the country. Since 2013 it has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List — yet a few decades ago it served as a hay barn.

History: the village's fourth church

The first Orthodox church in Smolnik appears in a tax register of the Sanok Land from 1589. The second, built in 1602, burned down in October 1672, most likely during a Tatar raid; the third was built in a safer spot. The present, fourth church was officially completed on 1 August 1791, as the inscription above the entrance confirms. Until 1951 it was a Greek Catholic parish church. That year, under a border exchange between Poland and the USSR, Smolnik returned to Poland and its inhabitants were resettled to Ukraine.

Ruin, hay and rescue

The village was taken over by a state farm, which gradually demolished all the buildings — only the church survived, used to store hay. Vandalism and looting destroyed its furnishings, including the iconostasis. In 1969 the church was entered in the register of monuments and the first emergency works were carried out, and in 1974 it was consecrated as a Roman Catholic filial church of the Assumption, belonging to the parish in Lutowiska. A thorough renovation in 2004–2007 raised and levelled the foundations and replaced the shingles, and in 2009 the wall paintings were conserved.

What to see

• The Boyko form: three log-built sections — sanctuary, a noticeably wider nave and narthex — each with its own broken tent roof crowned by a small dome and cross.
• The wide eave running around the whole building and protecting the sill beams from rain and snow.
• A fragment of 18th-century wall painting showing a curtain held up by angels, plus empty cartouches that once depicted the prophets.
• The churchyard cemetery on the east side, with a few surviving gravestones.

Did you know?

The most valuable icons from Smolnik survived elsewhere: the Dormition of the Mother of God and the Hodegetria, dated 1547, are in the Museum of Ukrainian Art in Lviv, and icons of the apostles from the Deesis row ended up in the museum in Łańcut. The Ukrainian border runs about 2.5 km east of the church.

Tripto tips

The church stands on a hill by the road from Lutowiska towards Zatwarnica, about 1.5 km from the modern village of Smolnik. According to the Lutowiska municipality, it is open every Sunday in July and August, 9:00–17:00; on other days, a visit to the interior has to be arranged with the caretaker, Mr Adam Bartnik, on +48 13 461 02 12. Twenty to thirty minutes is enough to see the exterior. This is a working church, so keep quiet and do not photograph services without permission; donations for its upkeep can go into the box inside.