The wooden church of Saint Michael the Archangel in Turzańsk stands on a gentle slope in the foothills of the Bieszczady mountains, in the far southeast of Poland, near the borders with Slovakia and Ukraine, with its onion domes rising above the trees. It was built in the early nineteenth century by the Lemko or Boyko communities, the Ruthenian highlanders who once lived in these mountains, and it is one of the wooden tserkvas of the Polish and Ukrainian Carpathian region listed by UNESCO in 2013. Inside, an iconostasis of painted icons separates the nave from the sanctuary, and the church is still used for Orthodox services.
The history of this region is poignant. After the Second World War, the Lemko and Boyko populations were deported, first to the Soviet Union and then, in 1947, to western Poland, in Operation Vistula, and many villages were abandoned. Some churches survived, others were destroyed or fell into ruin. Today, the Bieszczady are among the least populated areas of Poland, a land of forests, meadows and wildlife, including wolves, bears, lynx and bison.
The riding in the Bieszczady is fantastic. The Great Bieszczady Loop, a road circling the mountains, offers endless curves through forests and valleys, with views over the hills and the Solina reservoir, the largest artificial lake in Poland. Traffic is light, especially on weekdays, though summer weekends bring more visitors. Roads can be narrow and bumpy, and wildlife crossings are common, especially at dusk. Winters are snowy and cold, and the best riding season runs from May to October, with autumn colours especially beautiful.
Komańcza and Rzepedź, nearby villages, have small shops, a few restaurants and accommodation, and Lesko, about eighteen kilometres away, is the nearest town with full services, including fuel. Sanok, a bit further, has an open-air museum of folk architecture with many wooden buildings from the region, and a museum of icons. Local food includes pierogi, hearty soups and proziaki, a soda bread baked on a hot plate, often served with garlic butter. The Bieszczady narrow-gauge forest railway, near Cisna, is a fun excursion.