UA-1100070 Lemko Church in the Shevchenkivs’kyi Hai

This postcard shows the Lemko Church in the Shevchenkivs’kyi Hai.  I have not been able to ascertain the name of the church and whether it is a consecrated place of worship or merely a musuem piece.

The Shevchenkivs’kyi Hai (Its full name is the National Architecture and Rural Life Museum) is an open-air museum of Ukrainian village life and a living reproduction of Western Ukraine from centuries past. It is 3 km from Lviv’s centre and close to Vysokyi Zamok Park. The museum’s grounds cover 84 hectares of the leafy Kaizervald area.

At this museum one can experience Ukrainian village just like it was back when people live in wooden huts, with no electricity and other modern conveniences. The museum is divided into 6 ethnographic regions of the western part of Ukraine with 124 architectural objects, including wooden village houses, churches and everyday household items preserved in their original look.

One group of peoples represented is the Lemkos (Ukrainian: Лeмки). The Lemkos is one of several quantitatively and territorially small ethnic sub-groups inhabiting the Carpathian Mountains who also identify as either Rusyn or Ukrainian.

The distinctive wooden architectural style of the Lemko churches (as opposed to their neighbouring sub-ethnic groups such as the Boikos) is to place the highest cupola of the church building at the entrance to the church, with the roof sloping downward toward the sanctuary.

This postcard came from Nastya O. (22 July 2014) Postcrossing.