Buková hôrka is one of the favourite and frequently visited pilgrimage sites of Greek Catholics in Slovakia. The first written reports about this place date back to 1742.
Folklore says that a blind man who used to come regularly from Halič to the fair in Stropkov was miraculously healed here. His friends, together with the inhabitants of Bukovice, built a small chapelwhich, however, stood abandoned for a long time. Later, the villagers gave it to the hermit Arsenios Bosák for use. After his death in 1742, the Basilian - Jeromonach (priest and monk in one person) Irinarch Jaselsky of Halic - began the construction of of the temple and the monasterywhich were completed in 1796. The church was dedicated to the Holy Cross.
In the times of lively religious life there was also a cantorial school and a novitiate of all the Basilians of Hungary in the monastery on Bukova hôrka. Since its foundation, the monastery was almost always inhabited. Several times, however, the monks had to leave it for various reasons.
After the Second World War, only the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and the Chapel of the Transfiguration of the Lord were preserved.
Beech Mountain is today again an important centre of spiritual life believers. Annual traditional pilgrimages are held here on the feast of the Sending of the Holy Spirit, the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
Source : www.grkatpo.sk
Title photo: archiv.stropkov.sk
