If we talk about sacred monuments of architecture in cinematic terms, the churches always get the main role, but their bell towers are eternal performers of secondary roles. But there is a village in Galicia where such an analogy would be inappropriate. Because the church there is quite typical and modest with the roofs under tinplates, a very harmful material for wooden structures. But the bell tower under the shingle roof is a real architectural masterpiece.
Of course, we speak about Yasenytsia-Zamkova. Naive tourists will look out the windows of their cars somewhere between Old Sambir and Turka, in the vain hope to glimpse at least the remains of fortifications in Yasenytsia-Zamkova. The name is so promising! However, you will find no castle (in Ukrainian zamok) in this village, but instead you will see the queen of all wooden bell towers of Lviv region.
And its place is truly royal. Yasenytsia-Zamkova is situated deep in the Carpathians, the mountains here rise like walls around villages stretched along river valleys. But sometimes there are hills in these villages. Here, at the top of such a throne-like hill, a miracle of folk engineering with graceful arches was built in the second half of the 18th century. It probably happened around 1767-1779, more than 240 years ago. Back then it served three functions in one – as a gate, a bell tower, and a chapel. Bells called the faithful to pray, and everyone prayed right there, on the second tier of the bell tower.
The village was ancient (the first mention in 1510 or 1538) and quite populous – how could it live without a church? But the locals probably did not have enough funds for building a church. So they settled on a bell tower-chapel for first hundred and a half years.
According to local legends, the bell tower was not originally built in Yasenytsia, but in another Carpathian village. It seems to have been transferred here from Isaia of the neighboring Turka district. The fact that the bell tower really traveled can be evidenced by the carved markings numbering every log. What an amazing coincidence: almost all wooden churches of Boyko region are now covered with tinplate and other contemporary building materials. And only St. Michael’s Church in Isaia and the bell tower in Yasenytsia-Zamkova preserved the authentic shingle roof. When you look at these wooden tiles, your soul rests and the heart rejoices. The building was constructed without any metal fasteners – only with wooden locks and pegs. Only the cross on the top is forged. Previously, all our churches were built in such a way. It would be nice to see them in the future, when the level of patriotism and education finally matches with the desire of peasants to “modernize” everything with titanium nitride.
The three-tiered bell tower looks truly monumental, like the tower of an ancient fortification. Although it is quite small – only 14 meters high. All focus is on the correct proportions. Regarding the construction, it is a square of 6 by 6 meters, and each subsequent tier is made smaller than the previous one. The lower two tiers are surrounded by traditional Boyko arcade galleries. The third has small arched holes – they only emphasize the similarity of the building to the castle towers with their narrow arrow-slits. This harmony is completed by a wide polygonal low-tent cupola with a forged cross at the top.
The first, lowest tier was used in the past as a gate, later as a storage not only for old icons or church banners. Even honey from the church apiary was stored here. Two low arched holes are securely closed with powerful gates made of coarse boards. The chapel was, as we have already mentioned, on the next tier of the bell tower. It was named after the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. When a new church was being built, this chapel could fit the whole village for a liturgy! The incredibly high and spacious interior features even the room for the choir on a balcony. And actually the bells hang on powerful rafts, the cupola of the third tier of the bell tower, with an unusual staircase made of bisected spruce . One of the bells was funded by Yasenytsia peasants who worked in America in the 1930s.
A curious tourist might ask how the church standing next to the bell tower appeared. A rather large Church of St. Michael the Archangel is much younger than its companion. This is confirmed by the windows of the church. They are large, such large windows appeared in the modern time, when glass was no longer a luxury material. The church was built in 1903 by Vasyl Nahirny, a native of the Boyko Foothills and the most famous church architect of the eastern tradition in whole Galicia. It was not built in an empty place: earlier there was an older and more modest three-domed church in Boyko style. This style is easy to remember and recognize thanks to the “frills” of the ambulatory and several (often three) cornices on the pyramidal roofs. The architect built the modern church in the fashionable at that time Hutsul style, creatively working it out in the spirit of secession of that time. It was spacious, with a cross-like foundation, with elegant open log edges under the ambulatory and the carved choir balcony in the interior. Next to the door, skillfully decorated with a herring pattern, sits a small metal plaque the coat of arms of Rus – the lion – and the inscription “Society of mutual security “Dnister”. A sign that the church was insured by the company, which, by the way, was founded and headed by Vasyl Nahirnyi himself.
The miracle bell tower was thoroughly restored in 1970 by Lviv architects Ivan Mohytych and Igor Starosolsky. Now the building hosts a small museum with agricultural tools, old furniture, icons and embroidered banners, candle snuffers for lighting and extinguishing candles on spider chandeliers, even unique wooden rattles. Unfortunately, it does not keep regular working hours or ticket prices. If you are lucky to find a key to enter the church, you will see the museum. If not, alas, you will be left with a memory of the most beautiful bell tower of the Boyko region.