Church of the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God

The Church of the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God in Kostryna, Uzhhorod District, is a major example of the Zakarpattian school of vernacular sacred architecture and represents the regional type of three-log-built-unit churches with three upper roofed structures derived from Boiko and western traditions. The site preserves a long ecclesiastical history: earlier wooden churches are recorded in the village from the fifteenth, seventeenth, and early eighteenth centuries, and the present church was transferred in 1703 from the village of Sianky after flooding made its first new location unsafe. Eighteenth-century visitation records describe the church as being in good condition and fully furnished, while later repairs in 1761 and 1898, together with twentieth-century maintenance and reroofing, shaped its present appearance. The church is three-part, with a wider nave, a narrower apse, and a smaller narthex, all close to square in plan. It stands on a stone foundation on sloping ground and is surrounded by an encircling pent roof carried on long projections of the log-built units. A bell tower with open belfry openings and a tent roof rises above the narthex, while the nave and apse are topped by upper roofed structures with two tiered setbacks and wrought-iron three-barred crosses. The outer walls of the upper stages are clad in dranytsia. Inside, the narthex opens broadly into the nave, which is covered by a cloister vault; the apse has a barrel-vaulted ceiling, and a solea with two steps stands before the preserved iconostasis. Although the present interior is dominated by later overpainted and non-authentic images, several older icons, including Saint Nicholas and Saint Michael the Archangel, survive and suggest the character of the former historic ensemble.