Tuesday, November 01, 2011

World Recognition of Greek Catholic Church

A sixteenth-century church has been placed on the prestigious list of international monuments worth of care and financial support.

“This church has a soul” - says Fr. Jan Tarapacki, who celebrates masses several times a year in this Greek Catholic Church of St. Paraskeva in Radruz (Subcarpathian Province) for former residents of the village.

In 1940 the whole village was deported to the Soviet Union and the local church became empty. 

The majority of former villagers live now in the Lviv area of Ukraine.

They visit the place regularly but mostly the church is besieged by tourists.

It attracts about 10 thousand visitors every year.

The wooden church, dated to the late sixteenth century, as the only Polish monument, has been included on the prestigious list of World Monuments Fund, dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and training.

WMF describes its mission as "to preserve important historic architectural sites and works of art without regard to national boundaries".