Church of the Resurrection of the Lord in Bezwola

View of the church from Bezwolska Street

The church - main entrance (view from the west side)

Church of the Resurrection of the Lord in Bezwola - a wooden church, former Uniate church dedicated to Saint Nicetas, located in the Wohyń commune, Lublin Voivodeship. After the abolition of the Union it was transformed into an Orthodox church, and then, after Poland regained independence in 1918, it was reconciled into a branch church of the parish of Saint Anne in Wohyń.

The church and the bell tower on the right - view from Bezwolska Street

History of the church

The current wooden structure was built around 1728 by Eustachy Potocki, the later owner of Radzyń Podlaski. During its history of more than two hundred years, it has been enriched with paintings and renovated several times. In 1875, during the Russian partition, it was taken over by the Orthodox and adapted to their needs while preserving the basic architectural forms and furnishings of the earlier church. In 1919, it was reconciled to the Roman Catholic Church. In 1966 the building was entered in the register of historical monuments. During the renovation work carried out in the 1970s, a letter from 1862 was found with evidence of the persecution of the Uniates by the Tsarist goverment. During a major renovation in 1993, the Uniate paintings covering the vault of thee naves and the presbytery were "rediscovered". In September 1995 the church burned almost to the ground, only the outer walls remained. It was rebuilt thanks to the efforts of the parish priest Czesław Andrzejuk. The reconstruction completed in 1999 and it was awarded with the Conservation Laurel. Both the church and the Unites are firmly embedded in the history and tradition of the region. On May 27, 2004 the school in Wohyń was given the name of the Unitów Podlaskich and a Banner was created with an image of the Church in Bezwola.

Architecture of building

• A timber-framed building. The composition of the main body is an almost square porch, a rectangular main nave and two narrow lower naves separated from the main one by pillars and a square chancel.
• On the sides of the chancel there are two small vestries and above the porch there is the choir. The whole building is covered by a common roof, with the ridge at one level, while the side aisles are covered by the roof slopes of the main nave, which are extended downwards.
• Within the church square there is a wooden bell tower of pole construction dating from the mid - 19th century. It is built on a square plan, narrower in the upper part, open, with an openwork balustrade. It is covered by a tent roof with a cupola.