*3.2. Symbolism in Orthodox Church Architecture*

The founders of the village, the name of which is derived from 'chworost', meaning overgrown wilderness, were royal starosts in the early 16th century. Fr. Ivan Sopo´cko, the Orthodox dean of Wlodawa and Brest, wrote in 1521 in his chronicle: "Okromie togo podaju kaplicu w siele Khorostyta, siemuz otcu Ignatiju Siergiewiczu fundacji ich miłosti ˙ panov Koptiow. Pri niejze i wołok dwa gruntu nadle ˙ zaszczich do toj ˙ ze kaplica chramu ˙ załozenija Czesnego Kresta." The temple's founder was a courtier of Sigismund the Old, ˙ Mikhail Vasilevich Kope´c, a hospodar marshal, advisor, and spokesman for Ruthenian affairs in the chancellery of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The first historical mention of an independent Horostytsya parish dates back to 1699. In 1702, the owners of the Opole estate, the Kopci family, founded a wooden, single-domed Orthodox church. In 1756, they sold the estate and Horostyta to Józef Sierakowski. Toward the end of the 18th century, the chamberlain of Lusk, Józef Szlubowski, a Sejm member, acquired the estate in 1790. In 1793–1794, the temple underwent extensive renovation, the presbytery was rebuilt, and another general renovation was carried out in 1848. In 1861, a wooden bell tower was erected, which survived. Another estate owner in Horostyta was Bronisław Deskur, a local heir who led the January Uprising in Podlasie. In the Horostyta Orthodox church, insurgents under his command swore allegiance to Poland. In 1875, the Orthodox Diocese of Chełm incorporated the parish, and from then on, it belonged to the second district of the Włodawa deanery. In 1915–1917, the clergy did not use the temple. At the beginning of 1923, a formal decision was made to reopen the church in Horostyta. According to estimates, the parish then had more than five thousand believers. Horostyta was a Ukrainian ukaz village, meaning the Tsar exempted the residents from serfdom by granting them land for ownership. However, the population faced various adversities, including as many as three displacement actions. The first of these was the great evacuation in 1915, known as the bieze ´ ˙ nze ´ ˙ n, and the second was the displacement in 1945 deep into eastern Ukraine, and the third was during Operation Vistula in 1947, when the inhabitants of Horosyta were mostly deported and the parish was liquidated. In the 1960s, the population partially returned and regained their lands. The parish in Horostyta was reactivated in 1953 and incorporated into the Lublin deanery. By the end of the 1970s, the community had 360 believers; today, there are approximately 150 [42–44].
