Description of the attraction
In Kosmach there is a place where once stood the Church of St. Paraskeva, or the "Dovbush Church" of the early 18th century, burnt down by the communists.
According to legend, money for the construction of this church was donated by Oleksa Dovbush, who, in addition to financing, took an active part in its construction. Since then, another name "Dovbusheskaya" has appeared in the shrine. In 1718 the church was solemnly consecrated. The Church of St. Paraskeva ("Dovbush") was built without a single nail.
After the Second World War, the church of St. Paraskeva was closed, due to the fact that the communist regime could not allow that there were as many as two active churches in one village. In order to somehow preserve the architectural monument, famous people from Lviv tried to organize a branch of the Lviv Museum of Atheism in its premises. They even wanted to overhaul the church of St. Paraskeva and replace its roof, but the local and Kosovar authorities did everything to make the church collapse.
At first, the iconostasis, which was used in the filming of the film "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors", and other valuable things disappeared from it. But the crumbling church building continued to plague the militant atheists. And already in the 80s, the church burned to the ground. There are rumors that there are people in Kosmach who know or guess who burned the shrine.
To date, only the bell tower has survived from the church. In the 1990s, a chapel was erected on the site of the church. In addition to the lower tier, the temple is completely covered with tin. There were attempts to restore the entire church of St. Paraskeva at this place using the same technology (without nails), and of the same size, since dozens of photographs of this monument have been preserved. But due to lack of funds, the restoration of this building is practically at a standstill.
