Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland

Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland
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The Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland are medieval Roman Catholic Gothic churches built in the horizontal log technique.

The listed churches in Malopolska are:
1. The church of the Archangel Michael (Binarowa)
2. The church of All Saints (Blizne)
3. The church of Archangel Michael (Debno)
4. The church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Archangel Michael (Haczow)
5. The church of St. Peter and St. Paul (Lachowice)
6. The church of St. Leonard (Lipnica Murowana)
7. The church of St. John the Baptist (Orawka)
8. The church of St. Philip and St. James the Apostles (Sekowa)
9. The church of Archangel Michael (Szalowa)

Year Decision Comments
2003 Inscribed Reasons for inscription
2002DeferredTo provide Management Plan

Reviews

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In late August 2000 I had the chance to visit family living in walking distance to St. Leonard Church in Lipnica Murowana.

The church was open and we had the chance to see the beautiful artwork within it's walls. Simplistic in nature, this church was quite a wonderful find tucked away in a lovely village.
 
Jose Gomes (Portugal):
Very nice churches with walls nicely painted. In some cases, are not easily reached by car since some signs are missing on the roads and polish people drive dangerously. Here, I'm talking about the other drivers if you rent a car and also the driver of your coach if you consider a bus or mini-bus trip to these places.
Date posted: September 2006
Sazanami (Japan):
Wooden churches of southern Little Poland are immpressive places which are different from other major churches.
Living belief can be seen here and being wooden architectures reminded me of power of nature.
I've been to all six churches which was resistered,the Mass at debno made me immpressed at most.This photo is debno church at night.
Date posted: February 2006
David Berlanda (Italy / Czech Republic):
In our trip to Poland we have visited Lipnica Murowana and its wooden Gothic cemetery church of St. Leonard, constructed in 15th century outside the walls and reconstructed many times, in the horizontal log technique. It has a high roof with wooden shingles, an arcade around it and a nice portal. Inside there are wall paintings, polychrome decorations on the ceiling of the nave and of the chancel and a crypt with some tombs.
I was a little bit disappointed by the church because I imagined it bigger and more spectacular or decorated and also because it was closed, even if its architecture is of very good quality. I think however that it justifies the inscription because there aren't many wooden churches on the WHL and especially because they are a very important and widespread type of traditional buildings, but in my opinion the inscription can be largest, as to comprend all or some of the many other wooden churches of Poland, and also transboundary (there are many other wooden churches in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine). The church is very well conservated and it has a high degree of authentity. The title of the WHS "Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland" seems to be uncorrect, because two of the churches are in the region of Subcarpathia; but the title is referred to the historical region of Little Poland. The church is worth to be seen if you are in the surroundings of Cracow but it's difficult to get there. You can reach it from the road 4 going from Cracow to Tarnów by taking near Brzensko the road 99 in direction of Nowy Sącz and taking near Tymova the road 966, on which Lipnica Murowana is; you can park the car directly in front of the church, but the road signs telling you how to reach it are hard to find even in the village, so ask someone where the church is.
Photo: Lipnica Murowana - Church of St. Leonard
Date posted: February 2006
Paul Tanner (UK):
The Southern border of Poland with Slovakia contains wonderful unspoilt scenery and justifies detailed exploration by car and on foot over as many days as you can spare during a holiday to Poland – or even a journey for its own sake. The geography of the area has meant that a special culture has been developed and at least partly maintained.

A major outward manifestation of this is the many wooden churches which dot the area. The road system is complicated as it follows valleys in and out of the Carpathian foothills – and the difficult-to-remember and pronounce (to non Poles!) region and village names make tracing a route even more complex.

There are many more churches than the 9 inscribed on the WHS list and to find and see all of them would require many hours of poring over a map and many hours of driving. Some of the best e.g. Binarowa and Sekowa (photo) are in the “Beskid Niski” region near Gorlice (Poland’s “Oil town”).The churches are set in meadows and shady forests. Most have steep roofs which reach near to the ground, creating an overhang under which peasants who had travelled many miles to arrive on the Saturday evening ready for early Sunday mass could sleep! The interiors range from the simple to the quite ornate. We found services going on in some of them. All in all it was a very pleasant part of a visit to Poland.

Although the WHS list is perhaps in danger of saturating the market for groups of Central European rural churches (there are also 3 sets in Romania with potentially more to come from the Tentative Lists of Hungary and Slovakia!) I wouldn’t argue against the inclusion of this group. You wouldn’t go to “Southern Little Poland” just to see these churches but, if you are there, you should try to see at least 2 or 3 of them
Date posted: July 2005


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