Protestant Wooden Articular church
This important national cultural and sacral monument was created nearly 300 years ago. The church, paradoxically, owes its creation to the” dark” ages and the persecution of Protestants in our country. And what does the term “articular” means? Let’s have a little look at the history. In 1681 the Austrian Emperor Leopold I decided to convene a council in Sopron. The results of this council were summarized in the Sopron Articles. It were the 25th and 26th article of this legal document which contained the conditions (rather mundane regulations and restrictions), under which Protestant churches could be built in the Kingdom of Upper Hungary. Some of the conditions were: the church had to be built entirely of the cheapest building materials (i.e. wood), without the use of iron nails, without the main entrance to the village, without a tower and had to be built in one year. In addition, it always had to be built outside the city centre and outside the city walls!
It is on the basis of these articles, that these churches are called articular. Out of the originally 40 articular churches built, only 5 of these buildings have survived until the present day. We can only agree with the argument that Protestant articular churches are among the rarest and most endangered wooden sacral buildings. And the Articular church in Kezmarok is definitely among those the most suggestive ones.
The Committee of UNESCO in 2008 in Quebec placed the wooden church along with several “other wooden churches of the Slovak part of Carpathian Mountain Area” on the World Heritage List.
Here is an audio guide if you would prefer to hear this.
GPS: 49°08’00.3″N 20°25’41.5″E
Zobraziť Kežmarok, drevený evanjelický artikulárny kostol na väčšej mape
