Photo by Rostyslav Bahlai
On a small hill one can see the most precious thing that has the city of Drohobych – a masterpiece of the Ukrainian Baroque, the most prominent monument of wooden architecture, the spiritual symbol of the city – the Church of St. George( Yuriy) . It is often referred to as “a poem in wood” or a “wooden pearl” of Ukraine. It is the first object of a tourist pilgrimage in Drohobych and officially listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Tha uniqueness of St. George`s church in Drohobych is, usually, associated with the presence of wall paintings in different parts of the temple. The paintings on the walls in Galician churches in the 17 th – 18th centuries are considered a rare phenomenon of the sacral art of of that time (Sudova Vyshnia, Povoroznyk, Potelych).
The majority of compositions in St. George`s church, however, are treated not as monumental decorations, but as painting decorations, when historical plots get the character of everyday life. Drohobych paintings present an integral cycle of the plots, selected and placed in accordance with the traditional scheme.