Day 254: Churches of Peace

Double-location World Heritage site today. Left Wroclaw in good time and drove westwards to the town of Jawor, where the first of the two Churches of Peace awaited. These are quite interesting, the largest timber-framed religious buildings in Europe.

They were built in the 1650s, just after the Peace of Westphalia which put an end to the religious wars that had wracked Europe for the preceding decades. The Peace meant that protestants were allowed to build churches in predominately Catholic areas (like this one), but under strict conditions: they must be built of timber/straw/sand/clay, no towers, no similar designs to existing churches, completed within a year and located more than a cannon shot from the existing city walls.

Incredibly, these buildings were not only built, but survived - well, two of them anyway. A third burned down 200 years ago. We parked up and had a look inside the first one - quite large and surprisingly ornately decorated inside. I normally associated protestant churches with austerity and solemnness, but these were heavily painted and decorated which was quite interesting. Did some good filming and then headed south-east to Swidnica and the second church.

Stopped for a nice lunch in the restaurant attached, then checked out the church. This was even larger, and just as lavishly decorated. Locals are justifiably proud of their churches, and they're well known in the area. Finished off our filming and then headed for Wroclaw.

Went out for a walk with Schnitzel for an hour or so since the weather was decent (chilly but sunny), and the poor bored little dog had basically sat in the car all day. Stumbled across a burger place on my walk which we came back to in the evening for dinner. Great burgers! Last night in Poland tonight, we head to Czechia tomorrow.Read more