Leštiny

Leštiny is a very small village just half an hour drive from Liptovský Mikuláš. It has a few farms and probably a grocery shop. In essence nothing really worth a detour. Except one special place in the upper part of the hill.

I am sure that those of you who read my blog for a longer time have already some suspicions, since we have seen similar buildings in the past in Poland. And yes, this is a wooden church. A wooden church that is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site called Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of the Carpathian Mountain Area.

On the right hand side you can see some extensive tourist information. Very useful. If you speak Slovak, of course.

If your Slovak is as poor as mine, I propose we simply go up and see the church.

The church is not too large. It is surrounded by a wooden fence that goes around it.

Luckily, there is a door in the fence.

Behind the door there is a little cemetery.

The outside walls of the church accommodate a little gallery with a small balcony.

From there, you can judge by yourself how small the village is.

Now you probably ask yourself why on Earth someone would build a church on a hill, quite far from the village. And build it out of wood, which is not the most solid type of material. The answer is simple - because he would not have a choice. The church in Leštiny was a protestant church in a deeply catholic Austrian Empire. The emperor has consented in the second half of the seventeenth century that some protestant churches are built in the Kingdom of Hungary (where Slovakia belonged at that time) but imposed several conditions. They had to be outside the city walls and could not be built from stone or steel. A lot like the churches of peace in Silesia. So if you hear again about wooden churches in Slovakia, you will know that they are really wooden. And why. 

Unfortunately, this nice sign says that it is strictly forbidden to take pictures inside the church.

I assume the main reason is to protect the paintings on the walls. Because of the limitations related to building materials, paintings were the only way in which the church could have been decorated. To give you a feeling on what the church looks like, we will peep into the Slovak tourist website.

Source: www.slovakia.travel