Since the time immemorial, the major part of present-day Ukraine has been covered with impassible woods. Even in the cat steppe expanses of Southern Ukraine, known in the old days as “Dyhke Poleh” (Wild Field), the valleys of winding rivers were green with leafy groves. Wood, as the prevalent material, was used by Ukrainian’s ancestors not only in construction but also in producing furniture, kitchenware, household equipment, agricultural and manufacturing tools as well as different means of transportation. They treat wood with due respect contemplating it as a living and spiritual substance salutary for human beings. As late as until the end of the 18th century, everyone in Ukraine, from a poor peasant to an affluent magnate, was convinced that living in a brick construction was pernicious for human’s health, while a wooden house or palace was the only suitable habitation. Centuries later, the same adamant belief played a mean trick on the nation. Stone mansions, castles and churches were scarce, while wooden constructions, which once had been in abundance, soon deteriorated and collapsed. Thus, Ukraine’s historical and cultural heritage was artificially impoverished. Of how impressive our wooden constructions looked is anyone’s guess. However, their looks can be restored on the grounds of archeological finds, foreign travelers’ rapturous descriptions of Ukrainian wooden architecture and few timber structures, which have miraculously survived through the ages.

Wooden premises construction was put on the mass production in Ukraine. Folk house architecture, which cherished thousand-year-old traditions, was both conservative and open to innovations. Construction techniques applied to folk architecture differed from those of modern building engineering. Unlike their present-day counterparts, which are first carefully designed, accommodation and utility premises were modeled after similar constructions, following the traditions of a particular region or village. These folk construction customs, like folk songs, were passed from generation to generation. Unfortunately, each year more and more samples of folk architecture disappear. Thus, visiting museums of folk architecture and rural life that feature the most accomplished examples of construction art is perhaps the easiest way to get acquainted with this unique phenomenon.

In Ukraine, houses for all-the-year-round habitation were called “khata”, while seasonal or temporary dwellings were known as “kolyba” or “kuren”. Utility premises, which constituted a typical peasant homestead and included a shed for storing valuables, a cellar, a stable, a cart-shed for storing carts and sledges, a cattle-shed, a pig-pen, hen-house, a well with sweep and barn for unhulled wheat, located outside the courtyard, were just as important . A typical farm comprised a so called “clean” and utility yard. An orchard and a kitchen garden were an integral part of each farm. The harsh natural conditions resulted in the development of a unique architectural phenomenon, a walled farm, known in the Carpathians as “hrazhda”. Premises, confining a courtyard, formed a small castle with blank external walls and a gate. The “hrazhda” became a vivid embodiment of the English proverb “My home is my castle”.

A traditional Ukrainian “khata” is an enduring masterpiece of architecture, distinguished by both an efficient construction design and high artistic value. Most “khatas” consisted of one or two living quarters. One-room “khatas” were adjacent to an inner porch and shed, while two-room buildings abutted on various utility premises, and in some cases to workshops. “Khata” was of a rectangular shape covered with a hipped roof. It was easy to put up and maintain such simple and efficiently designed construction, as well as it was easy to warm it up in wintertime. “Khatas” were built of different wooden structural materials, including, logs, timber or blocks. Sometimes a wooden frame was filled up with sawdust, springs or clay mixed up with straw. Linden was considered the best tree for construction purposes. Roofs were covered with thatch, reed or thin wooden planks – shingles or clapboards.

Although elegant and diverse, the interior of Ukrainian wooden constructions was first of all distinguished for its efficient design – only the visible parts of the building were decorated and the method of color, shape, material and style contrast, which allowed achieving the highest artistic effect with the minimum techniques applied, was widely used.

Apart from traditional peasant constructions, the Ukrainian folk architecture is known for some fine examples of public buildings, including churches, schools, village councils, inns and large barns for storing grain. Utility premises – water and wind mills, saw-mills, fulling-mills, oil pressing mills, grits cutters and smithies – constituted an indispensable part of life and economy of a Ukrainian village.

Cheap and environment-friendly constructions that satisfied the needs of a Ukrainian farmer, traditional Ukrainian windmills are among some of the most ingenious inventions of engineering. The earliest mills known in Ukraine were water mills, while wind mills appeared only in the 18th century. All the windmills fall into two main types: pole-like constructions with the whole body of a mill rotated by the wind, and polyhedral or Dutch mills, in which only the upper part of the mill together with the vanes is turned. In the old days, wind and water mills could be found in every village or town, while in larger settlements the amount of mills reached several dozens.

Yes, the highest peak of its development the Ukrainian wooden architecture demonstrated in church constructions. Among the enduring masterpieces of wooden architecture are large cathedrals and small chapels, parish churches and belfries, fences, gates and towers. And it is no wonder why. The church was not only a spiritual sanctuary for worshipping and meditations, but also played a focal part in public life.

First wooden churches had been built long before Christianity was officially introduced on the territory of Ukraine. With time wooden church architecture gained popularity and adopted certain folk features. It was in constructing wooden churches that architects managed to preserve the forms and designs of ancient sacral edifices. Strange as it was, the same cherished old traditions laid foundation for developing new techniques in national architecture.

In building wooden churches, pine-tree, oak, hornbeam squared into four cants was among the most extensively used structural material. Other popular building materials were round logs or logs cut lengthwise. Wooden edifices were erected without a single iron nail or any other iron tools. And what was done not for the lack of iron or our ancestor’s inability to use iron nails. This sophisticated technique was based on the observation that high humidity made iron construction tools, such as nails, rusty. And this very rust deteriorated the wood, thus making the construction rickety and insecure. If need be, iron joining material was substituted with pegs of strong wood (oak or beech).

Churches and belfries were supported by stumps of oak logs vertically dug into the ground under the construction. The tradition of putting up churches on stone or brick foundations originated in the Podillya region and by the end of the 18th century was caught up by the rest of Ukraine.

The durability of any wooden structure depends on the measures taken to protect it from rain and snow. The amount of precipitation in Ukraine and especially in the Carpathians is rather high. Thus, roofs were made high and steep for the rain water and snow to stream down from the hips. Among the most popular roofing material were shingles (thin? Oblong pieces of wood used to cover the roofs and sides of houses, the so-called “wooden tiles”), clapboards and thin planks. The lower parts of the walls were additionally secured from rain or snow by “under-roofs” – a roof circumscribing the building and resting on columns or projecting lower rows of logs, also called corbels or protrusions.

All the architectural masterpieces featured in this album were created with the help of an axe and some other primitive tools. That is why they look more like sculptures, as if retaining the warmth of their creator’s skillful hands.

All the Ukrainian wooden churches fall into two main types: three-compartment and cross-like constructions. The prevailing type is definitely that of a three-compartment construction. Such churches consist of three main chambers – central chamber or nave, eastern chamber or altar and western chamber or narthex. Three-compartment churches are either one-roofed or three-roofed.

Cross-like churches are usually five or nine-compartment structures or have the shape of a Greek cross with arms of equal length. Such constructions are crowned by one, three, five or nine domes.

Whatever the type a wooden church belonged to, the uniting element for all the chambers was the central compartment or nave, which was made one tier higher than the side compartments. The dominating design of three-compartment churches comprised a rectangular or octahedral nave, a polyhedral altar and polyhedral or rectangular narthex. In cross-like churches the central compartment, in most cases, was square with each side equal the width of side compartments. The height of churches differed from region to region.

Among the wide variety of elaborated architectural forms, there are churches of simple outlines, which look more like simple peasant houses or barns. At the same time, there are edifices, among them the famous Trinity church in Novomoskovsk, whose exquisite design and accomplished shapes place them far above the most renowned sacral constructions. Ukrainian wooden church architecture is as diverse as Ukraine’s Landscapes. Tall as popular trees are churches in Boikivschyna region, elegant in the Lemkivchyna region, harmonious in the Podilya region, somewhat heavyset in the Halychyna and Volyn regions, or monuments like lighthouses in eastern regions.

An integral part of a sacral construction complex is a bell tower, which borrowed its architectural outline from ancient watch or fortification towers. One of the remainders of this “kinship” is a corbel gallery on the upper tier of multi-tiered bell towers, which theoretically allowed holding the defense against enemies.

All the wooden bell towers fall into two main types – framed structure constructions and log constructions. The type of the bell tower largely depend on the chiming techniques used, either the whole bell was swung or only its tongue. Swinging the whole bell to chime put additional dynamic load on the construction. Thus, the building had to be stronger, i.e. framed, structure. That is why framed bell towers prevail in western regions (Haluchyna and Volhyn), where bell-swinging is the preferred technique. In other regions, most bell towers are of a log, or log and framed (the lower tier was made of logs, while the upper tier was framed) structure.

Scientists still dispute about the amount of regional wooden church architectural schools in Ukraine. However, a profound study of edifices of multifarious forms and designs made scientists agree that similarities demonstrated by all the crchitectural schools underpin the unity of the Ukrainian nation and the unanimity in architectural and construction approaches.

Wooden constructions are the part of national heritage most susceptible to deterioration. They die of water, fire, bark beetles and shipworms, yet peoples’ carelessness and ignorance remains their most dangerous enemy. Being an acute problem not only for Ukraine but for Europe in general, the issue of preserving wooden architectural monuments of folk architecture became one of the most popular and efficient ways of preserving wooden constructions.

Today, Ukraine boasts several open-museums of folk architecture located in Kyiv, Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky, Lviv, Chernivtsy, Uzhhorod and the village of Krylos not far from Ivano-Frankivsk. Each museum presents a rich collection of masterpieces, revealing the achievements in folk wooden architecture. These exhibits are valuable “bank deposits”, which cannot be spent but only increased and multiplied.

Yet, no matter how much effort is made to preserve this part of national heritage, the time, and the implacable enemy of art, takes away the best masterpieces. To study, guard and secure them for the following generations is the mission of modern scientists, architects and restorers. Presenting the rigid beauty of Ukraine’s wooden architecture, the authors of this album pursue the same aim.

This fight should go on, until people learn to appreciate beauty, respect works of art and the remains of our once rich heritage.

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