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Lemkos orthodox church complex

The Orthodox Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God was founded in 1801 in Ropki in the Gorlice district. Currently, this unique Lemko church is considered one of the most valuable and beautiful objects of sacred wooden architecture in Poland. For 150 years, it served the faithful from Ropki well, but after World War II and the displacement of the Lemkos, the village was uninhabited for a long time and the church was closed. In 1978, it was dismantled and deposited in the warehouses of the Folk Architecture Museum in Sanok, where it waited 20 years for reconstruction and restoration. Today you can admire its beauty and uniqueness surrounded by other Lemko buildings saved from destruction. Its majesty is emphasized by three spherical domes separating the individual parts of the temple: the nave, women's gallery and chancel. The tower above the women's gallery has tapering walls upwards and is topped with a polychrome chamber with apparent clock faces and a wooden onion-shaped cupola. Above the nave and the presbytery, there are broken tent roofs, also crowned with spherical, wooden domes with apparent lanterns. The greatest treasure of the church of Ropki is hidden inside. It is a four-zone iconostasis and an illusionist polychrome covering the walls, ceilings and construction elements of all rooms. They were made in 1891 by brothers Michał and Zygmunt Bogdański from Jaśliska and are an excellent example of the art of local painters, skillfully combining the traditions of both orthodox churches operating in Podkarpacie.