Historical outline

The villages of Boryslav and Tustanovice were first mentioned as early as 1387. Since then, the villages have frequently changed owners, and various historical sources only emphasise these complexities. It is therefore difficult to establish a simple and transparent genesis. What is known for sure is that the names of the owners of the settlements include Dobrosławicze, Tustanowski, Kunat and Michałowski. The situation was similar with changes in place names, mergers, separations and parish affiliations. This is one of the reasons why the unification of an unambiguous name is not easy.

The second half of the 19th century was the apogee of the age of steam and electricity. From then on, the history of the village becomes clearer and clearer. It was then that Boryslav became the centre of an oil extraction basin. In 1885, a wooden chapel was built in Volanka. The founders were miners living in the oil fields. It is said to have existed until 1913, but over time it proved to be too small for the many workers arriving in the area. In 1902, the parishioners and the mine owners financed the construction of a new church building, which still stands today. The consecration took place a year later. For several years, however, the church stood empty. In 1907, Father Wojciech Karaś took over the post. It was

It was he who, with the support of parishioners and mine owners, purchased the following equipment: three altars, two confessionals, a pulpit, a baptismal font, an organ, stained glass windows, an Easter tomb, a Christmas crib and vestments.

The First World War spared the building. Although two of the four bells were confiscated for war purposes, the church was otherwise unaffected.

In 1928, the exposition in Wolanka-Borysław became an independent entity, but from then on as a parish it was called "Tustanovice". It included such villages as: Wolanka, Chatki and Ponerla, Borysław, Potok Górny, Potok Dolny, Ratoczyn, Mraźnica, Tarnawka. After the death of Father Karas, Father Andrzej Osikowicz took over the rectory and the parish was renamed Boryslav.

After the Second World War, the Soviets liquidated the parish and most of the Polish inhabitants left the area. The church in Boryslav was closed in 1946, and the lion's share of the equipment left behind was burnt. In the following years, the church functioned as an Orthodox church, from 1963 onwards as a salt shop, a furniture shop, a funeral parlor and, at the end of the USSR, as a museum of arts and crafts. In 1989, the building was handed over to Orthodox Christians and a year later to Greek Catholics.

Architecture

The neo-Gothic-neo-Romanesque building is located on a square between the 20th century buildings, separated by a low cast-iron fence. The soaring tower facing the front clearly distinguishes it from its surroundings. The elements characteristic of Neo-Gothic are broken by the modesty and fortitude of the Neo-Romanesque style. Historicism, fashionable in the 19th century, allowed free and creative play with form, even in such delicate spheres as religious buildings.

The building was erected on the ground plan of a Latin cross. The longer arm is formed by a two-bay nave and a narrower, two-bay chancel. In the lower tier of the nave there is a porch and an entrance to the staircase leading to the music choir. To the sides of the chancel are the sacristy and treasury rooms. The exterior elevation is surrounded by a stone plinth. All the rest is mainly of brick. The roofs have been tiled with the exception of the tower, the signal box and the finials, for which sheet metal has been used.

There are cross-ribbed vaults in the nave and presbytery, and pointed-arch cradle vaults in the transept. The upstairs room has cross vaults. The windows in most of the façade are rectangular, closed with pointed arches. Rectangular windows, closed with segmental arches, are used on the sides of the porch and in the sacristy and treasury.