Orthodox Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian Banica
Banica 35, 38-315 Uście Gorlickie
Tourist region: Beskid Sądecki i Niski
The present temple, dating from 1797 and with features of traditional West Semitic Orthodox church architecture, is the fourth building on the site, the first of which was erected in the 16th century. It is a wooden, tripartite, timber-framed church with shingled walls. It is not oriented. The south-facing square presbytery with vestry is covered by a tented roof, and the elongated nave connected to the babinets is covered by a gabled, tin-shingled roof. The tower and roofs are crowned by three domes (makowica) with apparent lanterns, small domes (makowiczka) and crosses. To the north rises the sloping-walled, post-and-beam tower, boarded with shingles and flanked at the bottom by zachata (construction to provide additional insulation to the hut for the winter period). In 1898, the church was extensively rebuilt. The nave was elongated in a rectangular shape and connected to the granary, and the shape of the roof was changed. Adjacent to the trilateral closed presbyteryl is a vestry of skeletal construction. The church was renovated several times in the 20th century.
In the interior, painted blue in the 19th century, attention is drawn to the complete Rococo iconostasis from 1757 and 1787 and the Tsarist gates from the 17th century. There are valuable icons from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, with images of the apostles and Deesis (a valuable icon of the Throning Christ), from 1702 with St Michael the Archangel and Christ in the Tomb from 1837. The main altar, a confessional with a canopy from the early 19th century, is in the presbytery. In the nave, there are two Baroque side altars, with paintings of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the early 19th century and a contemporary of Our Lady of Częstochowa. The antepedium is decorated with Baroque paintings and there is also a folk crucifix from the 18th century.
The church grounds are surrounded by a low stone wall with a gate-bell tower, within which the remains of a stone baptistery from 1696 have been preserved.
The monument is located on the Wooden Architecture Route – World Heritage Site in Malopolska (link to the description of the Wooden Architecture Route)