Mykulychyn. Church of the Ascension. Hutsul Architecture

Mykulychyn is the largest village in Ukraine, made up of several uchastky — uchastky precisely, not mere plots — located on the slopes of the Carpathian Mountains. In the centre of the village rises a church with the status of an architectural monument, consecrated in 1868 in honour of the Holy Trinity. The church could not hold all its parishioners, the people of Mykulychyn and visiting guests, while for the residents of the mountain village districts it was not always convenient to reach services along mountain dirt roads and trails. In 2003, on the remote uchastok of Polumystyi at the foot of the emerald ridges (gruni), in the valley of the Prutets Chemyhivskyi River, a new Church of the Ascension of the Lord was built.

Mykulychyn. Church of the Ascension of the Lord. 2003. UGCC

The church is built of timber in the traditional Hutsul style and has restrained decoration.

Cruciform in plan, the church is oriented with its altar to the south-west and its entrance from the north-east.

The lower part of the church is assembled from spruce beams on a stone foundation. Upon the central square sits a wall structure in the form of an octagon crowned with a cupola. On the side log frames the octagons are lower and the cupolas smaller in size. Natural light enters the interior through rectangular windows with cross-shaped frames. Round windows adorn the church above the entrance and on the altar side. The roof is covered with metal sheets; wooden shingle (gont) is no longer used for the roofing. The encircling eaves, up to 2 metres wide, help to shed moisture during rain and snowfall.

 

Ascension Church

The porch with its seven steps is fitted with railings and a canopy. By the entrance stand holy icons and a commemorative plaque marking the consecration date of the Ascension Church.

 

There is an entrance on the western side as well, likewise with a porch and railings. In the north-western corner of the church courtyard stands a two-tier bell tower with a gilded cupola.

  

The canopies over the statue of the Most Holy Mother of God and the memorial cross are covered with gilding.

Mykulychyn. Church of the Ascension of the Lord. Chapel and memorial cross

Even before the church opened, in the early 1990s, the faithful built a chapel on Polumystyi whose doors are always open to the traveller.

 

Mykulychyn. Chapel

Address: Polumystyi uchastok, village of Mykulychyn, Nadvirna Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast.

Related stories: Mykulychyn. Holy Trinity Church and Bell-Tower Museum · Mykulychyn. The Museum of Hutsul Customary Symbolism · Mykulychyn. Mount Kostel (Gorgany) and the Stone Garden · Vorokhta. The Church of the Nativity. Hutsul Architecture · Yablunytsia. Wooden Churches and Chapels of the Carpathians · Prutets Chemyhivskyi. A Carpathian River, a Blue Ribbon

This story is also available in Ukrainian: Микуличин. Церква Вознесіння Господня. Збереження традицій гуцульського стилю народної архітектури