St. Demetrius Church in Nowy Sącz

The Church of St. Demetrius, originally built in 1786 as a typical Western Lemko wooden church, is now located in Nowy Sącz, where it was moved from the village of Czarne in 1993 after being dismantled. Its architecture is characterized by log construction and an oriented layout, with a tripartite design consisting of the chancel, nave, and women's gallery (babiniec). The church tower, with its shingled walls and dome-shaped spire, adds to its unique character. The interior is adorned with polychrome paintings by Jan and Paweł Bogdański, created between 1893 and 1895, as well as a Baroque-Rococo iconostasis, although it lacks three of its original patron icons, which were stolen in the past. Within the church, there is also an interesting exhibition titled "The Journey of the Church from Czarne to the Open-Air Museum in Nowy Sącz." After being abandoned for a long time following the displacement of the village's inhabitants in the 1940s, the church was given new life after the reactivation of the Greek Catholic parish in 1989. Since 2017, Orthodox services have also been held here. Today, it serves both museum and religious functions as part of the Sądecki Ethnographic Park, making it an important landmark in the region that combines cultural and religious heritage. An interesting fact is that in the 1970s, the church caught the attention of the creators of the Nowy Sącz open-air museum, which marked the beginning of its later history as a significant cultural institution.