Stary Vovchynets


Stary Vovchynets is a commune in Hlyboka Raion, Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine. It is composed of two villages, Bila Krynytsia and Stary Vovchynets.
Bila Krynytsia village is located a few hundred metres north of the border with Romania. In Ukrainian and Romanian, as well as in Russian, its name means "white well". A 2007 estimate puts the population at 169, of whom over three-quarters are Lipovans. Founded in 1784, the village was the seat of the first hierarch within the Orthodox Old-Rite Church's Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy until 1940. At that point, due to the Soviet occupation of Northern Bukovina, it moved to Brăila from two reasons: fear of persecution by the Soviet authorities and the fact that it was the only Lipovan village in Northern Bukovina. All other vicariates in its territory were located either in Southern Bukovina, which remained in Romania, or in other parts of Romania. In 1941, the village was the site of the Fântâna Albă massacre.