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Churches of Peace in Jawor and Swidnica

Poland
Date of Inscription: 2001
Criteria: (iii)(iv)(vi)
Core zone: 0.23 ha
Buffer zone: 11.8 ha
Jawor and Swidnica counties, Lower Silesian (Dolnoslaskie) Voivodship
N51 03 15.4 E16 11 45.4
Ref: 1054

Brief Description

The Churches of Peace in Jawor and Swidnica, the largest timber-framed religious buildings in Europe, were built in the former Silesia in the mid-17th century, amid the religious strife that followed the Peace of Westphalia. Constrained by the physical and political conditions, the Churches of Peace bear testimony to the quest for religious freedom and are a rare expression of Lutheran ideology in an idiom generally associated with the Catholic Church.

Justification for Inscription

Criterion iii The Churches of Peace are outstanding testimony to an exceptional act of tolerance on the part of the Catholic Habsburg Emperor towards Protestant communities in Silesia in the period following the Thirty Years’ War in Europe. Criterion iv As a result of conditions imposed by the Emperor the Churches of Peace required the builders, to implement pioneering constructional and architectural solutions of a scale and complexity unknown ever before or since in wooden architecture. The success may be judged by their survival to the present day. Criterion vi The Churches of Peace bear exceptional witness to a particular political development in Europe in the 17th century of great spiritual power and commitment.

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