Ukrainian Church in Devetina

We continue exploring the tourist beauties of the Municipality of Laktaši with the help of the great Tourist Organization crew. Today's agenda item is the Ukrainian church dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Devetina.

The church is relatively easy to reach, on the main road for Prnjavor there is the sign for turning, that road leads you to the crossroad where the crucifixion monument is, turn right and you have arrived. The church is Greek Catholic, which is logical because Ukrainians are Greek Catholics. It is interesting that at the beginning of the last century on this territory lived a great number of Ukrainians and Poles, as evidenced by their cemeteries that are located here. This temple was built in the 1930s, and before it there was a chapel-type church that was used “on shift” by Ukrainians and Poles, so in 1930s two separate shrines were built. In the last picture you can see the chapel on the place where once was the Polish Church. What is interesting, and what you can see in the pictures, is that saints and apostles are carved on the iconostasis, but instead of common human characters they have the face of an animal. Each of these animals represents one Christian virtue. Nowadays, here live 70 parishioners with their priest Andrej who was a wonderful host and I thank him from the bottom of my heart.

The fact is that people in this area will become extinct, disappear in near future, but I hope that places like this will remain as a cultural monument of the people who lived here.

Author: Zoran Matić