Greek Catholic Church in Olchowiec, Greek Catholic church in Olchowiec, Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Poland
The Greek Catholic Church in Olchowiec is a wooden building on a stone base, located in the small village of Olchowiec in Podkarpackie Voivodeship, southeastern Poland. Its interior is divided into a women's section, a main nave, and a sanctuary, with stained glass windows and an iconostasis that incorporates icons from other churches that no longer exist.
A church has stood on this site since 1792, though whether the earlier building was constructed here or moved from another village remains unclear. The current structure was built in 1934, survived wartime shelling and the forced deportation of the local community, and resumed Greek Catholic services in 1987 after decades of shared use with Roman Catholics.
The church is closely tied to the Lemko community, an East Slavic people whose traditions shaped this part of the Carpathian foothills for generations. Today it serves both Greek Catholic and Roman Catholic worshippers, and the village still hosts gatherings where local Lemkos celebrate their customs together.
The church sits in the center of Olchowiec and can be reached by a stone bridge that leads directly to the entrance. A historic cemetery lies nearby, and visitors who take the time to walk through it will find old gravestones with inscriptions that reflect the village's past.
The iconostasis inside the church contains icons saved from other churches that have since disappeared, making it an unexpected repository of objects from the wider region. The stone wall surrounding the site also carries carved inscriptions that go unnoticed by many visitors but hold stories connected to the village's past.
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