Religious buildings - Puszcza Białowieska - Zwolnij Naturalnie - PUCHŁY – cerkiew Opieki Matki Bożej

PUCHŁY - church of the Care of the Mother of God, wooden, erected in 1913-1919.

The first mention of the Orthodox Church in the village of Puchły comes from 1578 (the presence of the clergy recorded in the conscripts). Its creation is connected with a legend about the revelation of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God in the 16th century. Under the lime tree growing on the hill where the church is now located, an old man suffering from swollen legs lived. Praying one day, he noticed a picture of the Mother of God at the top of the tree and soon his illness subsided. To commemorate this event, this place was called Puchły, from the word puffs, which in the local dialect meant, among others, swollen limbs.

According to another message, the icon was also manifested to the residents of Orthodoxy who asked for protection from the heirs who wanted to force their subjects to convert to Greek Catholicism. Soon, the icon miraculously appeared on July in the sign of prayers heard by Our Lady, and the evil heir died. It is most likely that his ghost is still wandering around today the unlucky crossing of forest roads between Puchły, Ciełuszki, Pawłowo, Dawidowicze and Soce. The broad-leaved lime has survived to the present and together with its roots and oaks form a group of 15 natural monuments.

The facade of the church and the entrance gate

According to some researchers, the Puchły sanctuary was established before the 15th century in order to weaken strong pagan worship in the neighboring village of Ciełuszki.

In 1754, the hurricane violated the old Orthodox church. The then owner of the village, Colonel Józef Wilczewski, funded a new Orthodox church in 1756. It burned in 1771, and with it probably also an icon. Another temple was erected in 1798 - it was a small chapel moved from the Narew River, the Cerkwisko pod Rybołami. Reconstructed in 1852 (added the second altar of Saint Gregory of Neocezarei) and 1864 (a skylight and a bell tower was added, a dome above the altar was built, a new iconostas was built with 14 icons ordered in Moscow, and the interior was decorated with arabesques, consecrated on November 3, 1870. In In 1887, the parish priest of the Orthodox parish in Puchły, Father Flor Sosnowski, was the director of the Saint Cyril and Methodius Teaching Seminary in Stawok. In 1913-1918, the current Orthodox church was erected. It was devastated during World War II (in 1941 three domes were smashed, the whole roof was damaged, part of the walls and numerous icons inside the temple were damaged). In the years 1961-1962 inside the church there were written new icons by Włodzimierz Wasilewicz, in the following years an external renovation of the church was carried out, the outbuilding was built on the parish grounds and the presbytery and the house of the psalmist were renovated.