"Новини Закарпаття"
At once two photos of the Zakarpattia region were included in the TOP-10 photo contest: aerial photo of Uzhhorod Cathedral and a photo of the church of St. Paraskeva in the village of Oleksandrivka. These photos are among the ten best photos of the competition for 2021, which will represent Ukraine internationally and compete with photos from other countries.
The winner of the nomination “The best photo of the Transcarpathian region 2021” in the Ukrainian part of the world’s largest international photo contest “Wiki loves sights” was an aerial photo of Uzhgorod Cathedral Kateryna Polishchuk.
Uzhhorod Cathedral is the main Greek Catholic church of Uzhhorod and the residence of Mukachevo bishops. An architectural monument of national importance. Bishops were buried in the cathedral in practice, the last burial took place in November 1947 after the assassination of Bishop (Blessed) Theodore Romgi. After that, the Soviet authorities announced the liquidation of the diocese and transferred the property to the Russian Orthodox Church, including the Council. After the restoration of Ukraine’s independence, the church was returned to the Greek Catholic Diocese. The photo of this monument wins the nomination “Best photo of the region” for the first time[1].
The next point in the region from the photos was the work of Andriy Mozol, which depicts the church of St. Paraskeva in the village of Oleksandrivka. This photo also got a chance to represent Ukraine at the international stage.
Church of St. Paraskeva in the village of Alexandrovka in appearance the church is similar to the temples of Marmara Gothic. The church is two-story, three-part, with a visible slope of the walls to the middle. In the Alexander Church you can see rich, best-preserved murals made in 1779 by master Stefan Terebelsky and paintings by folk artists. In 2002, the Lviv Institute of Archeology underwent a partial restoration of the church, but the project was suspended due to lack of funding. One of the pearls of Transcarpathia is in a catastrophic state, there is a gradual decline and self-destruction[2].
The aim of the Wiki Loves Sights competition is to obtain photographs of all the world’s cultural heritage under a free license to illustrate Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia that is viewed daily by millions of people around the world. And also to draw the attention of Ukrainians to the cultural heritage, to learn the forgotten and little-known pages of its history.
The list of monuments of the Zakarpattia region includes only 750 objects, 555 of which are already represented by photos in Wikimedia Commons. This year, participants uploaded 358 photos of 72 monuments (of which photos of 7 objects were uploaded for the first time), 13 authors competed for the victory in the nomination. And for the whole time of the competition – 264 participants.
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Wiki Loves Monuments is an international photo contest for cultural heritage that aims to collect photos to illustrate articles on Wikipedia, Wikimandra and other wiki projects. The competition is held annually in more than 50 countries by regional branches of the Wikimedia Foundation and volunteers of the Wikimedia community, including in Ukraine – the public organization “Wikimedia Ukraine”. In 2021 it was held for the tenth time in Ukraine. In total, during 2012-2021, more than 350,000 photos of Ukrainian monuments were uploaded, more than 39,000 monuments from Ukraine (42%) were photographed, and almost 3,500 people (from amateurs to professionals) took part. Photos for all years of the competition are freely available, you can view them and use under the terms of the free license CC BY-SA.
Wikimedia Ukraine is the only regional branch of the Wikimedia Foundation in Ukraine. She promotes Wikimedia Foundation wiki projects, the most famous of which is Wikipedia; bringing new knowledge and users to Wikipedia, as well as developing the wiki community in Ukraine.