Orthodox Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Turzansk

Since 2013, the wooden Church of St. Michael the Archangel has belonged to the elite group of monuments in Subcarpathia with the UNESCO label. While making an entry, the fact that the temple remains a perfectly preserved example of the building traditions of the Eastern Church, in this case the traditions associated with the culture of Eastern Lemkos, was taken into account. It has many features in common with Orthodox churches on the Osława river, and at the same time it differs from the temples of Western Lemkivshchyna.  

The temple has a compact mass, its individual parts are characterized by equal height of the walls, covered by a common, multi-sided roof with a single ridge. Above each of the parts there is a high, onion-shaped turret with an apparent lantern, with the most prominent one placed over the nave. The church is distinguished from other Eastern Lemko Orthodox churches by its cruciform plan, which is achieved by adding two symmetrical sacristies to the presbytery. Their tented, spherical roofs are also topped with analogous in form, albeit smaller spherical towers. Together with the twin helmet on the belfry, erected on the axis of the temple, the shapely turrets create a unique arrangement, often used in photographic and painting impressions about the monument. 

The temple was built in 1801-1803, and in 1817 the bell tower was erected. After the displacement of the Ukrainian population the church was used as a Roman Catholic church, and in 1963 it was taken over by the Orthodox Church. Today it is a branch of the Orthodox parish in Komańcza.

Inside, there is an iconostasis from the first half of the nineteenth century, supplemented in the late nineteenth century with icons made by Josyp Bukowczyk and openwork tsarist gates in the form of grapevine. The side altars also date from the early nineteenth century. The walls are decorated with figural-ornamental polychromy from the late nineteenth century, most probably made by Bukowczyk. Particularly noteworthy is the extraordinary scene depicting Christ in a Lemko hut and the mountain panorama painted above the iconostasis.