The village of Husny is one of the tiniest settlements in the Transcarpathian region. Today it has no more than a hundred permanent residents. This is many times less than the number of boykas who inhabited Husny before 1944, that is, the time of tearing Podkarpackie Rus from the body of Czechoslovakia, the formation of independent Carpathian Ukraine and the joining of this land to the endless territory of the Soviet Union.
Husny belongs to the Velikobereznyansky district and is as close as possible to the border with Slovakia. It is characterized by its picturesque nature, produced as a result of the «marriage» between the Uzom River and the Carpathians. The village is proud of its wooden church and surprises tourists with the hospitality, good-naturedness and childlike directness of its polyglot inhabitants.
Naturally, the main lure for the few travelers who find themselves in these parts is the Gusni wooden church, built in 1655. It is a recognized architectural monument and a demonstration of how strong and durable can be a wooden church, not deprived of love and care of its, even if very few flock. The church is dedicated to St. Nicholas, one of the most respected saints in Transcarpathia, the patron saint of children and merchants.
St. Nicholas Church was built of spruce logs according to the scheme typical for any house construction of the Boyks, one of the most original and distinctive Carpathian ethnic groups. It consists of three log cabins, the shapes of which are maximally approximated to a square. All log cabins differ from each other in height and volumes of the second and third floors, which is connected with their functional duties. Each log cabin is covered with a hipped tetrahedral roof and girded around the perimeter with its own vestibule. This distinguishes the St. Nicholas Church in the village of Husny from its colleagues from other settlements of Transcarpathia. Later, the vestibule became unified for the whole building, even if the temple was a five-bar church. In the middle of the 18th century, the structure was decorated with wooden carvings combining floral and pagan symbols and forms.
The church received the status of «architectural monument» not only due to its venerable age, but also due to the harmony and completeness of the whole structure. Even the unequal roof-tops of each log cabin do not dissonate, but perfectly combine with the peaks of the surrounding mountains. Thanks to the «care» of the Soviet authorities, the church was restored in 1972, so it successfully survived the troubled times and today is the main historical and artistic value of the village of Husny.
For those who are engaged in systematic acquaintance with wooden churches of the Carpathians, it will be very interesting to meet this St. Nicholas Church as one of the oldest examples of wooden sacral architecture in Transcarpathia. Your holiday in the Carpathians in this area can be diversified with trekking along the best mountain trails and tastings of cheese and wine attractions of the Transcarpathian region.