The building is an interesting example of the tserkva art from the early 20th century. The temple’s body, located in the centre of the village and surrounded by trees, is an important, distinctive architectural accentuation among the settlement’s buildings. Due to the importance of the feature in the history of sacred art and its role in the local landscape, it particularly deserves monument preservation.

History

The current Roman-Catholic church of the Decapitation of St John the Baptist was erected in 1914 as an Orthodox church. In 1920 it was taken over by the Roman-Catholic church. At first, as a filial chapel, then as a parish church.

Description

The old Orthodox tserkva located in the centre of Mszanna village, next to the road running across the village on its eastern side. It stands in the middle of the polygonal church cemetery surrounded by a stone wall with a gate in the front and a wicket gate from the south. The church is oriented. Its front faces west and the road. The feature is made of red brick, sealed with adhesives on the outside and plastered inside. It has stone floors. The vaults are of barrel type. The wooden roof truss is of a rafter and collar type. The roof is covered with galvanised sheet. Window and door frames made of wood; windows are diverse in terms of shape and partitions. The doors are single or double-leaf, panelled. The choir gallery rests on a crossbeam. Wooden winder stairs lead to the gallery. The building consists of the main nave approximating the shape of a square and a chancel - half as wide and shorter; rectangular sacristies on the sides. A porch, similar in size to the chancel, abuts on the nave from the west; staircases leading to the tower are located on both sides of the porch. A multi-unit body of the building, consisting of adjoining cuboids. The body of the main nave covered with a gable roof is the dominating structure. The body of the chancel is lower than that of a nave; connected with a smaller and narrower body of the sacristy. There is a common roof above the chancel and the sacristy. A tower corpus has two storeys and is wider than the main nave. The tower is topped with a steep gable roof. Façades of the building are made of brick, rest on a stone plinth and have brick architectural detail. The three-axis front façade includes a two-storey tower. There is a semi-circular portico along the main axis, in the form of an archway added to the wall facing. It rests on a cubic, baluster-like engaged column, covered with a small gable roof. The archivolt and door frames become narrower in steps to the inside. The door opening is segment-headed. Rectangular small windows are found on the sides. Corners of the front façade are accentuated by lesenes that continue under the eaves of the side parts and beyond, on tower corners. The tower has a semi-circularly terminating opening in a profiled surround. Below the opening there are panels arranged in a triforium. The gable of the façade includes a pointed-arch panel with a figure of the Holy Mary. Side façades are analogically arranged, crowned with a highly profiled cornice, below which, instead of an architrave, there is a row of bricks arranged vertically and at an angle. Corners are accentuated with lesenes. In the middle of the front façade of the nave corpus, there is large, semi-circular window in a brick surround. Below the window there are two rows of small panels. A sacristy with small window openings in a rectangular shape, right below the crowning cornice. The tower has a rectangular window opening with two panels below. The rear façade of the building is partitioned only in the chancel part. Sacristy parts are only encompassed by lesenes. The gable includes a triangularly terminating panel in a surround. The main nave, covered with a barrel vault, illuminated by large, splayed window openings of side naves, dominates inside the building. The nave opens with a semi-circular rood arch towards the chancel and with a semi-circular archway towards the choir gallery. The chancel, narrower and shorter by half and slightly lower, is covered with a barrel vault. The main altar’s wall has a pair of semi-circularly terminating windows. The side walls, next to the rood arch, there are rectangular door openings. The choir gallery over the porch is preceded by a full balustrade on a crossbeam, opening towards the nave with a semi-circular archway and with door openings towards the staircases. The gallery includes a ladder-like entrance to the tower. Under the choir gallery there is a porch covered with a cross-barrel vault. The porch opens towards the nave with a rectangular entrance.

The feature is open to visitors throughout the year.

Compiled by Katarzyna Kosior, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Warsaw, 17-10-2014.

Bibliography

• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, Tom X Województwo Warszawskie, zeszyt 6 powiat łosicki, Instytut Sztuki PAN, Warszawa 1965 r.
• Zabytki architektury i budownictwa w Polsce, woj. bialsko-podlaskie, ODZ warszawa 1984 r.
• Karta ewidencyjna zabytku architektury i budownictwa tzw Karta Biała, St. Fiedorczuk, październik 1993 r.