School of Traditional Boyko Icon Painting Held in Lviv Region

In the monastery of St. Onuphrius in Lavriv (western Ukraine) is taking place the International Boyko Icon-Painting School during the International Festival "Carpathia 2010.” Students and faculty of the Lviv State Academy of Arts as well as icon painters from Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Poland are paricipating in the event. The icon painters will exhibit their best works.

The Boykos are a distinctive group of Ukrainian Carpathian highlanders or mountain-dwellers of the Carpathian highlands. The Boykos inhabited the central and western half of the Carpathians in Ukraine.

The Lavriv monastery is the original monastic house known from the 12th century. In the past, the monastery was one of the largest and most prominent spiritual, educational, and cultural centers in Eastern Galicia. According to historians, it was founded by the Prince Lev (son of the King Danylo after whom Lviv was named) and according to the legend is buried there.

Also Kyiv metropolitans, bishops of Przemy?l, some famous Moldavians and Metropolitan Macarius of Jerusalem were buried in Lavriv.