Cerkva of the Dormition of the Mother of God, Bałucianka

The story

Bałucianka was founded in 1470 under Wallachian law and settled by the Rusyn highlanders later called Lemkos. Its wooden Greek Catholic cerkva is log-built on a stone footing, three-part and oriented, with a tapering post-and-frame tower and octagonal cupolas over nave and sanctuary. The dating is unsettled: 1750 is the oldest date carved into a lintel, and the commonly quoted 1820 is more likely a thorough renovation. Most specialists place the original structure in the 17th century, making it among the oldest standing cerkvas in Łemkowszczyzna. Inside is a four-tier iconostasis mixing late-17th-century Baroque with early-18th-century carving, and a Rococo main altar of 1783. After the Lemko population was removed in 1946, the building passed to Roman Catholic use as a filial church of the Królik Polski parish until 2003. It entered the heritage register in 1992, and by 2009 was close to collapse; a full restoration ran from 2009 to 2013, including new foundations and a return to shingle roofing. About 6.5 km southwest of Rymanów.

Everything that was here

• Date unknown

  Cerkva of the Dormition of the Mother of God, BałuciankaChurch

  The oldest surviving Lemko cerkva in the region wears a blind lantern instead of a Baroque dome, and nobody can say for certain what year it was built.

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