CHOTYNIEC
Tserkva of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(Poland, Subcarpathian Province, Jarosław District)

The temple represents a rare type of tserkva with a gallery surrounding a former chapel, transformed over time into a singing gallery. The form of the domed, almost spherical roof and the rich interior decoration are imposing.

Built around 1600, the temple was extensively repaired and transformed in 1733, and extended with a narthex in 1925. It is accompanied by a wooden belfry from the second half of the 17th century (relocated from the village of Torki), relics of the cemetery, and old trees.

It is a mortise and tenon (log) structure, tripartite temple, with a nave, a three-sided closed sanctuary widened by a pastophoria, with a „babiniec” (matroneum) and a nathex. It is crowned with three spherical domes on octagonal tambours and faux lanterns. The older part of the church is flanked by a prominent eaves canopy supported by lynxes and wooden columns (known as banding). Above the “babiniec” (matroneum), a semi-open gallery with semicircular arcades on columns leads to the former chapel.

Octagonal domes on tambours with pendentives enclose the nave’s interior and sanctuary. They are decorated with rich figural and ornamental paintings from 1722 and 1735, with an exciting scene of the Last Judgement. The furnishings include an iconostasis from around 1671, partially transformed in 1756, an 18th-century main altar, and a late 19th-century side altar.