The Churches of Peace at Jawor and Swidnica

The peace settlement of 1648 allowed Silesian Protestants three churches on strict conditions: outside the town walls, built only of wood, clay and straw, no stone foundations, no tower, no bells, and finished within a year. What went up under those limits are two of the largest timber-framed religious buildings in Europe, at Jawor and at Swidnica, with a third at Glogow long since lost to fire. Inside, both are stacked with galleries on several levels to hold congregations of thousands, every surface painted with scenes, texts and the coats of arms of the families who paid for the boxes. From outside they look like barns.

What you actually see

• The Swidnica interior - four tiers of painted galleries and boxes under a flat painted ceiling.
• The Jawor interior - close to two hundred painted biblical panels around the galleries.
• The timber frame - oak framing filled with clay and straw, visible on the outer walls.
• The churchyards - old gravestones and lime trees in the enclosures around both buildings.

When to go

April to October, when both keep longer hours and the interiors get enough daylight; there is no real heating and winter visits are cold and dim. They are working parish churches, so visiting stops during services, and Sunday mornings are out. Concerts are held in Swidnica in summer, when the acoustics of the timber are worth hearing.

Honest expectations

The two towns are quiet and there is little else in either, so a visit is mostly the drive. Both interiors are dark, and photography without flash gives poor results. Opening depends on a caretaker and can be irregular outside the high season. Restoration work has kept scaffolding somewhere inside one or the other for years.

Nearby

Ksiaz Castle and the Owl Mountains are within an hour, as is the town of Swidnica itself.