Orthodox Church of the Protection of the Mother of God in Hańczowa

The Orthodox church in Hańczowa already existed in the 17th century. Some sources say that its presbytery was built in 1644. The present building was erected in the first half of the 19th century on the site of the original temple. Perhaps the tower itself is older and comes from the 18th century. The building was thoroughly renovated in 1871 and in the years 1960–1968. The last extensive conservation and renovation works, both inside and outside, were carried out in the years 1989–2012.

The church in Hańczowa belongs to the younger variant of the north-west type of wooden Lemko churches  . It is three-part and consists of a nave , a chancel and a tower with a porch . The chancel and the nave are carcass construction , and the tower is a post and frame construction . The presbytery is elongated, closed on three sides, with a sacristy closed. A tower with sloping walls, an overhanging mezzanine , and bearing poles enclose the women's gallery . The walls of the nave, presbytery and tower are covered with shingles , the mantle of the tower is vertically boarded. Sheet metal roofs: tent over the nave, gable over the western part of the chancel , changing into a tent, multi-slope, both broken with small faults in the lower part; on the tower there is a tented roof with slopes bent locally over the clock faces in the upper parts of the walls of the chamber; gable roofs above the women's section and the porch. The tops of the tower, nave and chancel are similar, in the form of spherical helmets with apparent lanterns . The building is surrounded by a contemporary fence with an original 19th-century entrance gate.

The post-war history of the church is interesting. After the Operation Vistula, only one Lemko family survived in Hańczowa, and the displaced were replaced by Roman Catholic people. In this situation, the temple was taken over by the Roman Catholic Church and services were held in its rite. In 1955 a powerful storm destroyed the central dome, which threatened the walls of the temple with its collapse. From that moment on, the church slowly fell into ruin until a year later several Lemko families return to the village. The Lemkos from Hańcz decide to save their church, in 1958 they regain it from the jurisdiction of Catholics and start renovation. At the end of the seventies the original iconostasis returns from the Łańcut museum, and ten years later, thanks to fundraising among the world Lemko diaspora, the roof and domes are covered with copper sheets, and in the following years the interior polychromes are renovated.