It manifests itself mainly by spatial arrangement (a tripartite plan and a body with a nave covered with a tented cupola with a recess) as well as structural system applied (in a reduced version) during the construction of the nave cupola. The tserkva is also an important element of the cultural landscape of the village.

History

The currently existing tserkva, erected in 1701, is probably the third consecutive temple of the Greek Catholic Church in the area of Łukawiec. The construction date of the tserkva was immortalized on a lintel beam of the initial entrance portal, discovered during the last renovation. The date has also been confirmed by tserkva records. In 1753 the tserkva underwent a full-scale renovation. In the late 18th century the parish lost its independence and from that period onwards it functioned as a filial church of the parish in Bihale. In 1923 the tserkva was partially reconstructed and expanded (a new narthex, much larger than the previous one, was erected; a porch was added to the narthex and a sacristy was added to the sanctuary; a choir gallery was inserted to the narthex; roofs were clad with sheet metal and walls were weatherboarded; wall paintings were created in the interior). After 1947 the tserkva ceased to perform its function and remained out of use. In the mid 1960s it began to be used as a fertilizers warehouse. In the early 1987 the tserkva was damaged by fire, which swept through its western part damaging the choir gallery, a fragment of vaults and burning out its interior walls. In the years 1992-1994 the tserkva underwent renovation aimed at restoring the primary appearance of the western part (these works were carried out by the Social Committee for Care over the Monuments of Orthodox Art of the Society for the Preservation of Historic Monuments in Warsaw). Currently, the building remains unused.

The tserkva is located in the central part of the village, close to the Lubaczów-Wielkie Oczy route, on the edge of a waterlogged valley of Potok Łukawiecki. The tserkva area is surrounded by a wooden fence with a small gate from the 19th century, relocated from Kobylnica Wołoska in 1994. Several old trees have survived in the tserkva surroundings.

This is a tripartite tserkva, consisting of a chancel on a floor plan approximating that of a square, enclosed with three walls in the east, a nearly square-shaped nave - larger than other sections of the building, and a slightly smaller (new) narthex, also on a plan resembling that of a square. A small, rectangular sacristy adjoins the north wall of the chancel. The body of the tserkva is compact and features a clear partition into three sections: chancel-nave-narthex. The central section - nave - is the largest. It is covered with a single-recess tented roof crowned with a small, bulbous capital. The walls of the chancel and narthex are half as tall as the walls of the nave. The narthex and chancel are covered with gable roofs (roof over the terminating vista of the chancel lowers in three slopes). The roof slope over the sacristy is an extension of the roof slope over the chancel. Below the base of windows, the entire tserkva is circumscribed by a bracing of wood shingles (skirt roof) resting on corbels (formerly, on projecting beams of rafter tails). Beyond this bracing, the walls and roofs of the temple are covered with wood shingles; below it, a log structure was left uncovered. The tserkva was made of wood in a log structure, partially founded on wooden bales driven into the earth. The internal narthex and chancel are crowned with rafter vaults. A quadrangular log cupola over the nave is braced by a two-level structure of ties. The pattern of clearance between the narthex and the nave was designed during the last renovation. The fittings of the tserkva have not survived.

The structure can be viewed from the outside.

compiled by Ryszard Kwolek, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Rzeszow, 31-10-2014.

Bibliography

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