Wooden Churches

Монография доцента Санкт-Петербургского университета Е. В. Ходаковского продолжает изучение деревянного церковного зодчества XIX — начала ХХ в. на Русском Севере. В его предыдущем исследовании, удостоенном в 2021 г. Макариевской премии, была развернута история храмостроительства в Архангельской, Олонецкой и Вологодской губерниях. В настоящем издании представлен широкий искусствоведческий
анализ памятников северной деревянной архитектуры позднего периода. Они рассматриваются как самостоятельный феномен, а также во взаимосвязи с храмостроительными традициями Древней Руси и с процессами, происходившими в истории отечественной архитектуры в 1800–1910-е гг. Издание адресовано искусствоведам, историкам, специалистам в областях охраны культурного наследия, истории русского деревянного зодчества, истории и культуры Русского Севера.

EN/ The article deals with the defunct wooden church of St. John the Baptist in Vratimov and in wider context describes the history and the wooden vernacular architecture of the church in 15th-19th century. The first written references to the church date back to the year 1447, already as a parish church near the limits of Vratimov and Kunčice. The Vratimov church, which consisted of a bell tower, a church nave, a presbytery and a sacristy, was an typiccaly example of the wooden churches of Upper Silesia. On the start of the 19th century was the chruch so dilapidated, that must be disassembled in the year 1808. Nearby was build up the new stone church of the same dedication.
CS/ Článek se zabývá zaniklým dřevěným kostelem sv. Jana Křtitele ve Vratimově a v širším kontextu popisuje dějiny a dřevěnou lidovou architekturu kostela v 15.-19. století. Nejstarší písemná zmínka o kostele pochází z roku 1447, kdy se jako chrám farní nacházel na hranici katastrů Vratimova a Kunčic. Vratimovský kostel, který tvořila zvonice, loď, presbytář a sakristie, byl typickým zástupcem dřevěných kostelů Horního Slezska. Na počátku 19. století byl kostel již tak zchátralý, že musel být roku 1808 rozebrán. Poblíž byl postaven nový zděný kostel stejného patrocinia.

The study of the vernacular architecture of Maramureș has always struggled with the chronology of wooden constructions. Dendrochronology provides reliable dating, independent from the scarcity of historical sources, and regardless of the limits of the art science. The current study presents a recent dendrochronological investigation performed at the old wooden churches in the village of Apșa de Mijloc, in Ukraine (official name: Сере́днє Водяне́). As a result, two of the most iconic and enigmatic wooden churches in Maramureș and by large in the Carpathians reveal their true age for the first time. The two old wooden churches are differentiated by their position in the village as the lower church and the upper church. The results rewrite their stories and offer the possibility to analyze and re-evaluate them in the framework of the sacred architecture of Maramureș.

Două dintre cele mai iconice și enigmatice biserici de lemn din Maramureș își dezvăluie pentru prima dată secretele vechimii lor. Studiul de față introduce în mediul științific și face cunoscut interesului public rezultatele recente ale investigațiilor dendrocronologice realizate la bisericile de lemn din Apșa de Mijloc. Datările obținute permit rescrierea istoriei lor și oferă posibilitatea de a le analiza și reevalua în cadrul specific al arhitecturii religioase din Maramureș. Studiul clarifică etapele aplicate în procesul datărilor dendrocronologice și aduce în discuție câteva aspecte generale legate de datări.

EN/ The rigorous thesis deals with the history of the wooden parish church of St. Catherine of Alexandria in Ostrava-Hrabová in the context of the history of the Hrabová Roman Catholic parish. The work follows the author's monograph from 2015, it updates the results of earlier research and enriches it with a number of new findings. The text deals with several interesting cultural phenomena connected with the Hrabová Church in addition to the detailed elaboration of the Hrabová Church history, whether it is a folk legend about the transfer of the church from Metylovice or the issue of fire and restoration of the wooden church. Even spiritual administrators, sights and wooden folk architecture of Hrabová church were not forgotten.
DE/ Die rigorose Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Geschichte der hölzernen Pfarrkirche St. Katharina von Alexandria in Ostrau-Grabau im Kontext der Geschichte der römisch-katholischen Gemeinde Grabau. Die Arbeit folgt der Monographie des Autors aus dem Jahre 2015, sie aktualisiert die Ergebnisse älterer Forschungen und bereichert sie mit einer Reihe neuer Erkenntnisse. Neben einer detaillierten Ausarbeitung der Kirchengeschichte von Grabau befasst sich der Text mit mehreren interessanten kulturellen Phänomenen, die mit der Grabauer Kirche verbunden sind, ob es sich um eine Volkslegende über die Verlegung der Kirche aus Metylovice oder das Thema von Feuer und Restaurierung der Holzkirche handelt. Auch die spirituelle Administratoren, die Sehenswürdigkeiten und die hölzerne Volksarchitektur der Grabauer Kirche wurden nicht vergessen.
PL/ Tematem niniejszej dysertacji jest historia drewnianego kościoła parafialnego pw. św. Katarzyny z Aleksandrii w Ostrawie-Hrabowej w kontekście historii parafii rzymskokatolickiej w Hrabowej. Praca ta jest kontynuacją monografii autora z 2015 roku, poprawia i aktualizuje wyniki wcześniejszych badań oraz wzbogaca ją o szereg nowych informacji. Oprócz podstawowego zarysu historii Kościoła w Hrabowej praca zajmuje się także kilkoma interesującymi zjawiskami kulturalnymi związanymi z hrabowskim kościołem, chodzi o legendę ludową mówiącą o przeniesieniu kościoła z Metylovic oraz o sprawę pożaru i restauracji drewnianego kościoła. Wspomina się tutaj również duchownych, pełniących posługę duszpasterską w parafii, zabytki oraz drewnianą architekturę ludową kościoła hrabowskiego.
CS/Rigorózní práce se zabývá dějinami farního dřevěného kostela sv. Kateřiny Alexandrijské v Ostravě-Hrabové v kontextu historie hrabovské římskokatolické farnosti. Práce navazuje na autorovu monografii z roku 2015, opravuje a aktualizuje výsledky staršího bádání a obohacuje jej o řadu nových poznatků. Text se rovněž kromě základního zpracování církevních dějin Hrabové věnuje několika zajímavým kulturním fenoménům spjatým s hrabovským kostelem, ať již se jedná o lidovou pověst o přenesení kostela z Metylovic či problematiku požáru a obnovy dřevěného kostela. Nebyli opomenuti ani duchovní správci, pamětihodnosti a dřevěná lidová architektura hrabovského kostela.

https://theses.cz/id/5hrvfa/

Wooden Articular churches in Slovakia are a special kind of wooden sacral structures, which are well known to the expert and lay public. The Evangelical believers of the Augsburg Confession built them following the findings of the Sopron Council (1681). At the time of promulgation of the Edict ofTolerance in 1781, the Evangelicals in our country didn’t only start building brick churches, but they continued, in some mountainous and submontane areas to build small wooden chapels.
The reason emerged not only from geographic and climatic conditions of the given regions, but mainly from the economic possibilities of individual congregations.Only when they economically stabilized and the number ofworshipers grew, could they afford a construction of bigger andmore spacious sacral structures.Then they usually demolished the simplewooden structures and on their place built larger brick churches, with a generous ground-plan and a specific architectural design.

This report on the 13th excavation campaign at the site of Miranduolo focuses mainly on the 8th century evidences, because of their actual major implications in terms of general interpretation of the site. In particular, on the north-eastern slope of the hill, we defined more precisely the settlement space of a farmer/blacksmith, consisting of a wooden house, a workshop where iron smelting and forging took place, a storehouse (mainly for foodstuffs) and several grain pits. The owner belongs to an intermediate social rank and occupies an area adjacent to one of the two nucleus of power of the village (specifically, the one on the hilltop). We were also able to identify a new section of the palisade that enclosed the other center of power, located in the western part of the hill and marked by the presence of a wooden church. A final matter of extreme interest is the discovery of 8th century evidences at the foot of the hill.. Even if we don't yet know whether there is a spatial continuity with the findings of the higher parts of the settlement, the existence of these traces is an important indicator which testifies a so far unsuspected dimensional articulation of the village in this period.

The old wooden church from Botiza was taken to pieces a century ago and reused for the construction of a confessional school in Hoteni. The timbers from the ancient church, that surfaced during the demolition of the former school, in 1997, are in the focus of this study. This very old church should not be confused with the wooden church standing today in Botiza, brought from another village in 1899.

This paper aims to emphasize the documentary value of a few fragmentary beams for the study of the sacred wooden architecture of Maramureş, a region where many old wooden churches are still standing.

A few beams were selected and documented in detail. From three of them, there were also taken samples for dendrochronological dating. The results complete and correct the descriptions of the church found in three unpublished inventories from the 19th century.

Due to the identification of the place the selected beams had in the initial construction and with the help of the written records it is purposed a reconstruction of the church’s plan and elevation. It is also possible to establish which type of corner joint was used and to study several technical refinements and decorative elements utilized by carpenters.
The preliminary dendrochronological results date the old church from Botiza from the last decade of the 16th century. Without this firm dating, it would never have been known the historical value of the material documented and presented here. However, by reconstructing the plan, it was possible to unveil one of the smallest parish churches in the region, dimensioned about 4,4-5,4 m large, for up to 160 worshippers. The square sanctuary with only two door-openings from Botiza proves that the sanctuaries from Onceşti, Poienile Izei, and Săliştea de Sus Nistoreşti were not rare in the Iza Valley and they certainly continued an old local tradition. In elevation, this church in all probability had two eaves, being, in this case, the smallest of its kind known until now in Maramureş. Indeed, the partial reconstruction of this church contributes to recover an empty page in the history of the local sacred architecture, two decades before the oldest standing wooden churches were built.

Finally, it is underlined the necessity to support or establish certain repositories in the regional museums for wooden pieces recovered from valuable wooden constructions. Furthermore, a few reflections are made about the alarming state of the Romanian heritage of wooden constructions.

This essay deals with the use of signs and their significance in the carving on the portals of the wooden churches in Transylvania. The essay brings a challenging perspective into this subject by proposing a new understanding of old signs. To understand the images on the portals of the wooden churches in Transylvania, they have to be studied within the geographical, architectural, and ideological space in which the images were accustomed, namely, the churches and the post-Byzantine spirituality of the Carpathians. The rope, with the meaning of firmament, provides the key to read the composition of the portals of most of the wooden churches in Transylvania, and, for this reason, it gets special attention. Through the effort to recover and highlight the hidden meaning of the carvings on the portals, we are recovering a part of the subtle valencies of the architectural whole, which are affirmed right from the entrance. On another level, in the carving of the portals, we find a conscious act of making doctrine intelligible and of educating believers in the sacral function of the place of worship, beyond the modesty of its appearance.

The foundation of the modern research of the sacred wood architecture from Maramureș was laid during WWII, in an ample monographic work, written by the art historian Victor Brătulescu. Until then, for over 75 years, the research of the wooden churches in Maramureș had almost only one significant landmark: the wooden church in Berbești. After its demolition in 1932, it disappeared into anonymity along with all the efforts made by many specialists to study and save it. The present study emphasizes the value of their work, it gathers together the historic materials, mostly unpublished, and proposes a first overall reconstruction of the wooden church from Berbești as well as an evaluation of the wooden church in an updated scientific context.

There are about 70 old timber churches preserved in the historical county of Maramures, built between the beginning of the 16th century and the middle of the 19th century. They show a variety of constructive traditions as well as a strictness and a richness of expression in the art of the carpenters. The present work establishes and presents an inventory, a chronology and a typology for the numerous wooden churches, intended to guide the reader through the cultural complexity of the local heritage.

Vechea biserică de lemn din Putna s-a distins în istoriografia noastră prin aura legendară care i-a însoţit şi protejat existenţa de-a lungul veacurilor. Tradiţia i-a conferit chiar un loc de întâietate în complexul de ctitorii domneşti aşezate la temelia Ţării Moldovei. Cu toate acestea, până astăzi nu s-a putut stabili cu certitudine adevărata ei vechime şi însemnătate pentru istoria arhitecturii. Datarea ei recentă prin metoda dendrocronologică aduce definitiv la lumină neaşteptata ei vechime, până la împletire cu legenda ei. Mutarea, adaosurile şi reparaţiile, prin care a fost adaptată necesităţilor şi salvată până în vremurile noastre, au creat unele dificultăţi în analizarea corectă a structurii originale, conducând la repetate erori. Starea ei de conservare ne oferă totuşi şansa unei reconstituiri adecvate. Rezultatele acestui studiu pun în evidenţă valoarea documentară deosebită a bisericii de lemn de la Putna pentru istoria arhitecturii de pe cuprinsul României şi mult dincolo de graniţele ei.

This article offers an extra historical argument for preserving and restoring wooden churches and especially those with a trefoil plan. These fourteenth-century monuments, keeping some of the political messages not fully understood, such as the Bogdana church in Rădăuţi, Dragos Voda's church from Putna, are compared with the church in Oşesti, Vaslui County. In the case of the Oşesti church, the loss of historical sources led to local historical inadvertences.

The wooden church from Oncești was brought in 1975 to the open-air section of the Maramureș Museum to illustrate the key role played by places of worship within the villages of Maramureş. Despite the unequaled importance of this construction within the museum, its defining characteristics have remained little known. Its significance for the history of architecture, art, and culture in the region is even less understood. Moreover, the church, and with it, the entire museum, have fallen into indifference and lack of maintenance that endangers the unique values ​​that were gathered and preserved here with great efforts. This article aims to bring into the public concern and the scientific attention the defining features of this church, their documentary significance and heritage value.

In this article, I gathered all the data about this church from my previous research on local sacred architecture. In addition, I present my recent documentation of the fragmentary mural painting and of the portable icons saved in the collection of the Maramureș Museum. The available literature covers only a few aspects regarding the church from Oncești and the archival sources are far from being thoroughly studied and used. These shortcomings can be overcome by future research, supplemented by careful studies of the construction on-site, where the main sources of information are stored.

In the first part of the article, I describe the architecture of the church, which retains several archaic features from the time it was built, around 1621, such as proportions, the reduced number and the small dimensions of the openings in the walls. The structure of the construction witness about the addition of the porch and about the renovation of the tower before the middle of the 18th century. In the second part, I go through some analyses of the mural painting fragments and I use some historical records that determine the age of the mural painting around the middle of the 18th century. Furthermore, the author of the mural painting can be identified with Alexander Ponehalsky, of Ucrainian origin, known in the area as painter Alexa. In the third part, I pay attention to the iconostasis, remarkably unnoticed until the present. It presents the features of a typical Maramures iconostasis with five rows, partly painted on the wall, partly of movable icons. The row of small festive icons and the three rows painted on the wall above can be attributed to painter Alexa. These correspond to four icons from the row of large royal icons, of which one is dated in 1747 and the second in 1748. These two dated large icons allow more precise dating of the icon screen and of the whole mural painting around 1748, recording the oldest known work endorsed to painter Alexa. Noticeably, the royal icons were replaced within every 20-30 years, about a shift between two generations of patrons. In the fourth part, I present a novel aspect in the evolution of the local native language. It regards the introduction of Romanian writing in church painting in Maramureș, based on the paintings and icons saved in the wooden church from Oncești and in other churches in the region belonging to Romanian communities. This step was enabled by previous translations of the bible and of necessary church books from Church Slavonic to vernacular language. Alexa is the first known painter in Maramureș who introduces the Romanian language in his work, thus answering the needs and the new cultural aspirations of the benefactors. This step essentially removed the last language barrier between parishioners and their church, contributing in a long term, to some major cultural transformations in Maramureș.

The accelerated development and expansion of cultural tourism in areas with unique tourist objectives, characterised by a high degree of risk in terms of their physical and chemical integrity, requires sustained efforts by all stakeholders to identify new methods, techniques, and procedures for their conservation, protection, and capitalisation, with respect to tourism. The aim of this study was to propose an optimal methodology for capitalising on tourism related to wooden churches, regarded as a structural item of tangible cultural heritage, with positive effects on the protection, conservation, information, and awareness of all stakeholders in tourism development. This involved the development of a web portal, in which were integrated the 3D models related to the analysed objects, the panoramic images inside them, the audio support, the photographs, and the accompanying text necessary to create and render a virtual reality (VR) production for purposes of virtual tourism (VT). The results obtained consisted of the creation of the website Bi-hor360°, which is freely navigable and whose content, including both textual and graphic information , can be easily accessed by all interested users. The aim involved was to release an online bridge for potential visitors to the fragile tourist attractions, facilitating the development of active knowledge and VR while raising awareness among the population and the local authorities about the role and the importance of the wooden churches in tourism and the local economy.

EN/ The publication deals with the important wooden Church of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Ostrava-Hrabová that comes from second quarter of sixteenth century. The first part of the publication represents three introductory chapters which focused on the Church to wider context political history with consideration to cultural and economic history. The second part of the publication focused on history of the Church and parish, architecture or art equipment. Detailed is also caught the event of the Church fire in year 2002 and his subsequent reconstruction as copy with using of original materials from the burned Church.
CS/ Publikace se zabývá významným dřevěným kostelem sv. Kateřiny Alexandrijské v Ostravě-Hrabové, jehož počátky sahají až do druhé čtvrtiny 16. století. První část monografie zahrnuje tři úvodní kapitoly, které kostel zasazují do širšího kontextu obecných dějin obce Hrabová s přihlédnutím ke kulturním i hospodářským dějinám. Druhá část monografie komplexně pojednává o samotné historii kostela a farnosti, architektuře či uměleckém vybavení. Podrobně je také zachycen požár kostela z roku 2002 a jeho následná obnova ve formě dobové kopie s využitím původních materiálů z vyhořelého kostela.

Early in my research, I made a description with scale drawings of four simple wooden churches from Maramureș. They present some old architectural features. Historical data was gathered from earlier known publications, that are today partly outdated. Precautious use of historical data from this article is needed. Unfortunately, a major error slipped inside the article, Olle Svedberg was my distinguished professor/supervisor and I was his student and the single author.

The canvas icon of The Passion of Christ from the wooden church in Sârbi Susani can be found today in the collections of the Maramureș Museum. The icon is one of the most distinct pieces of art in Maramureș, at the limit between portable icon and mural painting. It was painted somewhere in the middle of the 17th century, and, so far, it is the oldest known representation of the passion in the historical region of Maramureș. The icon comes from a workshop in the town of Kolomyia, in the historical region of Pokuttya, where the painters worked in a post-Byzantine style, combined with Renaissance decorative elements. The canvas icon of the Passion of Christ belonged to a group of canvas icons that together contribute to a new, diversified understanding of how the churches of Maramureș were endowed in the 17th century, a period that was difficult to research, due to the lack of conclusive data. An inscription on the north wall inside the narthex of the church in Sârbi Susani, possibly a contract, needs to be further studied, with the icon of the passion. A future deciphering of the inscription may offer new, unexpected perspectives about the icon, its founders, and the painter.

Establishing the origin of the icon of Passion in Sârbi Susani from a painter’s workshop in Kolomyia, eventually further away in that area, brings into question an aspect still too little studied but of great significance in the history of post-Byzantine art in Transylvania and Maramureș. It regards the activity of Ukrainian artists north of the Carpathians in the Transylvanian and Maramureș Byzantine environment. They seem to have been sought after and called to these parts, being renowned for their artistic performances throughout the world of Byzantine rite. The painter’s workshop in Kolomyia, although important for Transylvania and Maramureș, it is not covered in the specialized literature. It needs to be studied in more depth, at least based on the material found in Maramureș and Transylvania. It may offer not only a possible answer related to the origin of some post-Byzantine artists from Transylvania and Maramureș in the 17th century, but also the direction of the penetration of some Renaissance style influences in the post-Byzantine art from these regions.

A stable built of reused timber from a former wooden church in Văleni is the subject of this paper. This was built in Călineşti soon after the demolition of the church in 1947. The construction was recently transferred and saved in Văleni in the care of the “Tiberiu Utan” Cultural Association and the parish of Văleni, as a reminder of the lost church.

This paper aims to establish the documentary value of the beams in the stable. In this sense the discussions revolve around the intricate history they recall as well as their potential for the research of the sacred wooden architecture in Maramureş.

The value of the beams from the former wooden church was highlighted by its dendrochronological dating from the first quarter of the 16th century. Since from this period there are only a few fragments of churches saved, the church from Văleni is today the only medieval wooden church in Maramureş we know how it looked like. Moreover, the model of roofing with double eaves, as seen in Văleni and so characteristic in the region, can thus be dated back to the Middle Ages.

The various historical sources indicate the church was first built in the monastery of Cuhea where it replaced an old stone church, founded by the prestigious family of the voivode Bogdan. The wooden church was moved to Văleni very probably in the 1670s, where it served as a parish church until 1947. After the First World War, the wall between women and men was taken down, a measure that weakened the structure under the heavy tower and possibly led further to the construction of a new church in the village a few decades later. Despite some changes and alterations, the main original structure survived until its demolition. Outwards the church was characterized by its roofing with double eaves and the slender western tower, while inwards the narrow but high vaulted nave was the most remarkable feature.

A closer look at the beams in the stable provides several examples of refinements in craftsmanship, certainly performed by professional carpenters specialized in sacred architecture. This reveals the high technical standards used in the local sacred architecture, as documented in the following centuries, were well known in Maramureş at the end of the Middle Ages.

"Язык надписей лемковских икон из коллекции Областного Музея
в Новом Сонче"

В статье рассматривается язык надписей 23 лемковскых икон, представленных в Областнем Музее в Новым Сончу. Надписи рассматриваются с точки зрения орфографии, фонетики, флексии и их лексики. Видимая в них тенденция изменений языка, который развивается все больше и больше под влиянием народного языка. Как приложение в конце статьи, находятся все анализируемые надписи.

A very particular type of wooden church in Slovakia is to be found in the Lutheran, so-called articular churches which the Protestant faithful of the Augsburg creed were permitted to build in a very limited number in the tempestuous period of the late 17th and almost all of the 18th century.

В статье рассматривается народная архитектура с позиции теории и истории искусства. Автором высказывается предположение о том, что одним из факторов формирования архитектурного образа средневековых деревянных церквей и декоративных приемов в пластике северо-западных областей России могло быть влияние скандинавского искусства. Обоснованием этого служит как исторический контекст — длительное и тесное взаимодействие со скандинавами, совпадение периодов христианизации, так и искусствоведческий — приводятся примеры схожести конструктивных, конструктивно-декоративных и декоративных элементов.
/
The paper examines folk architecture in terms of the theory and history of art. The author assumes that one of the factors in forming the architectural image of medieval wooden churches and decorative techniques in the plastic arts of the northwestern regions of Russia could be the influence of Scandinavian art. This is explained by both the historical context – long and close interaction with the Scandinavians, the coincidence of Christianization periods, and the art history, which is referred to examples of similarity in constructive, constructive-decorative and decorative elements.

[HUN]
A kovászna-vajnafalvi református egyház templomát Székelyföld kevéssé jelentős épületei között tartjuk számon. A késő historizmus emlékei közé sorolható templom építési ideje 1930–1931 közé tehető, vélhetően helyi építőmester alkotása. Az itteni református közösségnek azonban a ma láthatónál jóval gazdagabb építészettörténeti öröksége lelhető fel a múltban, melyet legszemléletesebben az Erdélyi Református Egyházkerület Központi Gyűjtőlevéltárában őrzött dokumentumok elevenítenek fel. A mai templom előzményének tekinthető két faépületről HAVADTŐY Sándor lelkész emlékezik meg az egyházközségről írt rövid monográfiájában (1933). Utóbbi épületek közül az általa 1852-re datált különösen értékesnek tekinthető az erdélyi építészettörténeti kutatások számára, hiszen alaprajzi formáját tekintve a régióban egyedülálló lehetett. Az 1930-ben lebontott fatemplomot 1929-ben maga DEBRECZENI László mérte fel, akinek rajzai, fényképfelvételei és levelezései nyomán ismerhetjük meg az egykori templomépületet. A XVII–XIX. századi erdélyi református fatemplomok mára szinte teljesen eltűntek, pedig a korai protestáns templomépítészet jellegzetes épületei lehettek. A ránk maradt emlékeken túl e többnyire szerény falusi templomok helyezhetnék új megvilágításba az erdélyi református és – általánosságban – a korai protestáns templomépítészetről alkotott képünket, ezért a tanulmány a vajnafalvi példa bemutatásán keresztül ennek az épülettípusnak szakmai diskurzusba való beemelését célozza.
Kulcsszavak: református, fatemplom, Erdély, Háromszék, Kovászna,
Vajnafalva, DEBRECZENI László
[ENG]
The Calvinist Church in Valea Voineşti, part of Covasna Town, is considered as one of the less significant buildings in Szeklerland. The church classified as a late historicist building was erected in 1930-1931, being most probably the work of a local master builder. However, the Calvinist community here has an architectural history that is much richer than what we can see today, this being most evident in the documents preserved in the Central Collecting Archives of the Transylvanian Calvinist Diocese. The two wooden buildings that preceded this church are mentioned by pastor Sándor HAVADTŐY in his short monograph on the parish (1933). He dated the latter building to 1852, being highly valuable for the Transylvanian architectural research, since it might have been unique in the region in terms of its ground plan. The wooden church demolished in 1930 had been surveyed in 1929 by László DEBRECZENI, from whose drawings, photographs, and correspondence we are able to
get acquainted with the old church. The Transylvanian Calvinist wooden
churches dating back to the 17th-19th centuries have disappeared almost entirely by today, although they might have been typical for the early protestant religious architecture. Beyond the buildings we have today, these rather modest village churches shine a new light upon Transylvanian Calvinist religious architecture, as well as upon the early protestant religious architecture in general, that is why the present study on the church in Valea Voineşti aims at introducing this type of building into the professional discourse.
Keywords: Calvinist, wooden church, Transylvania, Trei Scaune, Covasna, Valea Voineşti, László DEBRECZENI

A few years ago, the remains of Finland's oldest identified churches were still dated to the 1230s. Since the founding of parishes was dated to the early 13 th century, these remains were associated with the period of ecclesiastical organisation. In 2013, the well-preserved stone foundation of a church presumably built already in the 12 th century was excavated in southwestern Finland. Located in the middle of an inhumation cemetery, this building was associated with the ecclesiastical activities of the period of missionary activity in Finland and may have been the church of a village or locality used by a community smaller than later parishes. Also two previously known foundations of belfries from two separate inhumation cemeteries may date from this period of transition from the Iron Age to the Middle Ages. Because very little is known about the remains of early churches, the new finds discussed in this article provide considerable additions to our view of the early ecclesiastical culture of Finland.

The paper gives coverage on the problems of semiotics  of  wooden  sacred  architecture  at  the  territory  of historical Volhynia under past and modern circumstances, including semiotics of material itself and the colour as its main aesthetical characteristic. There are considered the main peculiarities of the colour semiotics  of  basic  structural  elements  of  churches’  exteriors. The authors tried to analyse the main reasons
and tendencies of the changes in semiotics of wood and coatings applied for church exteriors and to define  their  colour  as  the  most  important  aesthetical 
feature. Main evolutional stages for changing the semiotics of wood as a material and colour of wooden churches are suggested.

article gives theoretical summary and new conclusion of Ukrainian wooden church genesis (origins and principles of architectural formation) scientific problem. The investigation results are achieved by the analytic of Ukrainian wooden church’s main architecture-genetic characteristics such as its space-composition and shape-construction. This analytic was fulfilled from the global position of worldwide sacral architecture developing review. The scientific results point the authentic, originality and world-cultural significance of Ukrainian wooden church’s architectural phenomenon showing the rare case of European Monotheistic temple inclining to the Eastern (Central and South Asian) compositional archetypes of Polytheistic architecture.

The article is devoted to study of Art`s Early Medieval Scandinavia XI-XII centuries. This process is concerning with
transitional from Late Viking Art to early Romanesque. The main focus is on the group of Norwegian wood carving
portals. The system of portals decorum is the result of artistic interaction between late pagan art and art of Christianity.
This process reflected in wooden portals of Norwegian stave churches and others monuments of Scandinavian
wooden, stone sculptures and objects of applied art.

Sacred wooden architecture in Poland is a huge and still unrecognised research problem. It covers a number of issues of interdisciplinary character: from the properties of building materials and carpentry techniques, through constructionand architectural-spatial solutions, to cultural and natural conditions. Hence, the best way to study this problem is interdisciplinary research. The necessity of cooperation of representatives of various scientific disciplines became the basis for creating a team to study the wooden church of St Michael the Archangel in Domachowo, so far dated to 1568. As researchers representing various disciplines (including archaeology, history, art history, history of architecture, architecture, architectural conservation), we cite sources and research that allow us to formulate a thesis that the past of the Domachowo church dates back to the 14th century. Moreover, we present the research and methodological problems inscribed in the aforementioned church buildi...

English translation for Joanna Daranowska-Łukaszewska's text for the photographic album Małopolska architektura drewniana. Lesser Polish Architecture in Wood. Olszanica: Bosz, 2005. Polish-English bilingual version (Introduction and Glossary of terms)

En/ Situated within the broader context of the ecclesiastical history of Zábřeh (now a district of Ostrava), this article traces the development of the now-defunct wooden Church of St. Mark, beginning with its medieval origins and ending in the early 19th century, when the church was completely demolished and replaced by a brick and masonry structure in a Classicist style (the Church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary). A re-examination of surviving sources indicates that the first written mention of the wooden church in Zábřeh (and the parochial house attached to it) dates from 6 February 1454. It was thus probably the second oldest church in the Moravian part of what is now the city of Ostrava, and it may have been established during the 14th century.
CS/ Studie se v širším kontextu vývoje zábřežské duchovní správy podrobně věnuje historii zaniklého dřevěného kostela sv. Marka v Ostravě-Zábřehu od jeho vzniku v hloubi středověku až po jeho zánik na počátku 19. století, kdy byl kompletně rozebrán a nahrazen zděným klasicistním kostelem Navštívení Panny Marie. Ve světle nově interpretovaných pramenů se zdá, že první zmínka o zábřežském dřevěném kostele sv. Marka a tamní farnosti pochází již z 6. února roku 1454. Zábřežský chrám lze tedy pravděpodobně považovat za druhý nejstarší chrám v moravské části dnešní Ostravy, který mohl být zřízen již v průběhu 14. století.

Sacred wooden architecture in Poland is a huge and still unrecognised research problem. It covers a number of issues of interdisciplinary character: from the properties of building materials and carpentry techniques, through constructionand architectural-spatial solutions, to cultural and natural conditions. Hence, the best way to study this problem is interdisciplinary research. The necessity of cooperation of representatives of various scientific disciplines became the basis for creating a team to study the wooden church of St Michael the Archangel in Domachowo, so far dated to 1568. As researchers representing various disciplines (including archaeology, history, art history, history of architecture, architecture, architectural conservation), we cite sources and research that allow us to formulate a thesis that the past of the Domachowo church dates back to the 14th century. Moreover, we present the research and methodological problems inscribed in the aforementioned church buildi...

Sacred wooden architecture in Poland is a huge and still unrecognised research problem. It covers a number of issues of interdisciplinary character: from the properties of building materials and carpentry techniques, through constructionand architectural-spatial solutions, to cultural and natural conditions. Hence, the best way to study this problem is interdisciplinary research. The necessity of cooperation of representatives of various scientific disciplines became the basis for creating a team to study the wooden church of St Michael the Archangel in Domachowo, so far dated to 1568. As researchers representing various disciplines (including archaeology, history, art history, history of architecture, architecture, architectural conservation), we cite sources and research that allow us to formulate a thesis that the past of the Domachowo church dates back to the 14th century. Moreover, we present the research and methodological problems inscribed in the aforementioned church buildi...

Вже більш ніж 20 років як церква Покрова Пресвятої Богородиці у Національному музеї народної архітектури та побуту України в Пирогові знову стала місцем молитви для чималої громади греко-католиків Києва, а на гаївки щороку біля неї збирається люд зі всієї столиці, навіть Блаженніший Любомир приходив. Також чимало киян і гостей столиці щодня приходять до храму, аби пізнати нашу історію і культуру, адже зведений він ще у 1792 році у с. Плоске нині Свалявського району Закарпатської області, згодом перевезений до с. Канора Воловецького району, а у 1976 р. був доправлений до Пирогова і став експонатом музею. Про історію та сучасність храму, про архітектурні особливості цієї лемківської церкви з Закарпаття, її унікальність і зв’язок з традицією, про найвидатнішого уродженця с. Плоске о. Олександра Митрака й розповідає ця книжка українською й англійською мовами.

V období Veľkonočných sviatkov sme sa oboznámili s nenápadnou knihou, ktorej obsah je naopak tým výnimočnejší. Autori Mychajlo Syrochman a Jaroslav Džoganík sa podujali zhromaždiť poznatky a obrazové dokumenty o "stratených" drevených cerkvách na severovýchode Slovenska. Poskytujú tak prehľad dnes už nejestvujúcich pamiatok v našej časti Karpát.