*3.3. Architectural Description of the Building*

The church in Horostyta is oriented with the apse and altar facing east, and the entrance is in the opposite western wall. It is built of wood with a log structure on foundations, planked outside and inside, and reinforced with foxholes (Figures 5 and 6). On a rectangular plan, the nave has a newer babiniec added to the west and a slightly narrower, short chancel to the east. Adjoining the chancel to the north and south are rectangular, lower annexes housing the sacristy and treasury. The interior, once tripartite, is now a hall, with a newer music choir in the western part. The windows are rectangular, with semicircular closed windows in the chancel and transverse windows in the sacristy and treasury. The nave is

accessed from the north by a stave door with a diamond studded pattern. The roof over the body was once tripartite, with a cupola over the central part. Today, it is five-pitched, shared by the nave and chancel, ending at the bottom with wide eaves with a lambrequin. The side slopes of the roof extend over the sacristy and vault. However, an onion-shaped signature tower rises in the middle of the ridge. Above the granary, the roof has a gabled form. All roofs are covered with shingles [45,46].

**Figure 5.** View of the church from the side of the municipal road (by M. Dudkiewicz).

**Figure 6.** Orthodox church in Horostyta—south elevation (by M. Dudkiewicz).

In the center of the church is a late-classical, wooden, blue-painted iconostasis from 1880 (Figures 7 and 8). It is single-story and has seven axes, with bronze pilasters decorated with rosettes, and it is enclosed by a cornice. Above the cornice is a finial with three paintings in finely decorated frames. Above the side, the volutes have crosses, while above the central volutes, the volutes are open. The culmination is gilded in bronze, and the fragments are painted blue. The openwork tsarist gates are formed of volutes and acanthus leaves, with crosses and rays. The iconostasis features contemporary icons of St. Nicholas, the Virgin and Child, Archangel Michael, Christ Pantocrator, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Last Supper, the Shepherds' Bow, and the Ascension in the culmination. Representations of the Evangelists and the Annunciation are painted on Tsar's gates. At the iconostasis are two side altars from the first half of the 17th century, with paintings from the old iconostasis painted on boards. On the left altarpiece is the Mother of God and Child, and on the right is the patronal icon of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (16th/17th century). Surrounding it, nine small scenes of the history of the Holy Cross are visible: Crucifixion, Baptism of St. Paul, Original Sin, Prayer of St. Paul, Empress Helena inquiring about the Holy Cross, Finding of the Holy Cross, Miracle of Resurrection through the Holy Cross, Building of the temple on the site of finding the Holy Cross, and Resurrection [42,43].

**Figure 7.** Orthodox church in Horostyta—iconostasis (by M. Dudkiewicz).

**Figure 8.** Orthodox church in Horostyta—elements of the interior (by M. Dudkiewicz).

A wooden two-story belfry, with a square plan of log-and-post construction planked and on a foundation, is located next to the church (Figure 9). Its lower tier is wider, separated by a slanting shingle roof, and the upper tier is narrower, with rectangular slits. The roof is tent-shaped and covered with shingles with a cupola on top [42,43].

In 2006–2007, the Orthodox church and belfry underwent a significant renovation, during which the foundations, damaged walls and roof structural elements, exterior formwork, floors, roof sheathing, windows, and door woodwork were replaced and the iconostasis was restored.

Since 2007, the Orthodox parish in Horostyta has been located on the Horostyta–Hola– Sosnowica–Dratów tourist route, "in the footsteps of the East Slavic Orthodox church tradition in Polesie Lubelskie."

**Figure 9.** Wooden belfry next to two sycamore maples (by M. Dudkiewicz).
