Ukrainian churches

Block Myhailivskii Monastery with Golden Top. The 900-th Anniversary


Maniavskyi Cell



Voskresenska church in Sumy XVIII century



The St. Yur Cathedral in Lviv XVIII century


The Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral in Chernihiv, ХІ century


The Pokrovskyi Cathedral in Kharkiv, XII century


The Pokrovska Church in Sutkivtsi, ХІV–ХV century


The Khrestovozdvyzhenskyi Cahedral in Poltava


St Onufriy Cherch in Lviv


Nativity of the Virgin Church in Lviv region


The St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv
The Illinska Church in Subotiv
The St. Yur Chuch in Drohobych
The Trinity Cathedral in Novomoskovsk

Ukrainian Church Features The majority of examples of wooden Ukrainian church architecture originating from the XVI - XX centuries are as a matter of fact churches consisting of three log cabins - solid-timber units (towers), centrally counterbalanced. Or in other words, the higher and wider tower was located in the middle between the narthex ("babynets") and the altar. In all variants the tower of the central log cabin was the tallest, the towers of the side log cabins were lower and the towers of the corner log cabins - still lower. Now only one vertical-centric church with nine towers is preserved - the Cossack wooden cathedral of the XVIII century in the town of Novomoskovsk. From the second half of the XVI century in Ukrainian timber construction hexagonal and octagonal log cabins were used. The exterior walls of Ukrainian churches were covered with board sheathing; the roof was often made of shingles. There were no strict rules of location of windows, it can only be said that they were situated quite high from the ground. They were of a rectangular, square or round form. Churches did not have an accentuated facade as the main attraction. Great attention was also paid to decoration of doors that led directly to the church, and to crosses at the top, which were decorated with exquisite forged ornament. By eye the Ukrainian church always looks 20 per cent higher from its real forms. That effect was achieved by special (but deliberate) combination of internal space of log cabins and roofs (domes). The indispensable feature of the church ensemble in Ukraine was the belfry. The height and forms of the belfry depended on the architectural composition of the church. When the belfry was constructed straight near the church, its form closely copies the forms of the church towers. Source  Key wods: ukrainian churches, churches in Ukraine

---