The Churches of Peace — timber-framed and on the UNESCO list

A concession designed to fail

The Peace of Westphalia of 1648 ended the war but changed little in Catholic-ruled Silesia, where Lutheran congregations kept losing their churches. Under Swedish pressure, Emperor Ferdinand III allowed three new ones — one each in the duchies of Świdnica, Jawor and Głogów. The permission came wrapped in conditions meant to keep the buildings inconspicuous and short-lived.

Only perishable materials were allowed: timber, clay, straw and sand. Each church had to stand outside the town walls but within cannon range, with no tower and no bells, be finished within a single year, and be paid for entirely by the congregation. Towers and bells were only permitted after the Convention of Altranstädt in 1707. The third church, in Głogów, burned in the town fire of 1758 and was never rebuilt in its original form.

How to build a cathedral out of mud and timber

The job went to Albrecht von Säbisch, a fortification engineer from Wrocław, and he approached it as an engineer rather than a church architect. The structure is timber framing throughout: a wooden skeleton infilled with clay and straw, carried on a heavy beam frame, with no masonry in the load-bearing walls at all. The plan is cruciform, and every square metre was put to work, because the point was to fit in as many people as possible.

Jawor was built in 1654–1655, Świdnica in 1656–1657, the latter with the local carpenter Andreas Kaemper. The Świdnica church is roughly forty-four metres long and thirty wide, its interior covers over a thousand square metres, and it could hold some seven and a half thousand worshippers. Both are counted today as the largest timber religious buildings in Europe.

Inside

The restraint was imposed on the outside only, and you notice that the moment you step in. In both churches four tiers of galleries run around the walls, stacked one above another, which was the only way to seat the congregation. At Jawor the gallery fronts are painted with scenes from the Old and New Testaments, interleaved with landscapes containing castles and with the coats of arms of the families who paid for the work.

At Świdnica the ceiling carries a Baroque painted scheme from the 1690s by Christian Süßenbach and Christian Kolitschka. The main altar dates from the mid-18th century and the pulpit from a generation earlier. The first organ was built by Gottfried Klose in the 1660s; the present instrument is from the early 20th century. Jawor's organ followed a similar path — the Baroque instrument was replaced in the mid-19th century, and early this century it was returned to that 19th-century state.

Getting there

• By car — both towns sit an easy drive from Wrocław and Legnica, with about thirty-five kilometres between them.
• By train — regional services run from Wrocław to both towns; each church is a fifteen-minute walk from the station.
• As a day trip — the pair works well together, with Jawor in the morning and Świdnica after lunch.

Worth knowing

These are working parish churches of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, not museums. They close to visitors for services, concerts and weddings, so check the parish pages before setting out. The interiors stay cold even in July, and in the colder half of the year you will want more than you think.

Both went onto the UNESCO list in 2001 and were designated Polish Monuments of History in 2017. Świdnica hosts a summer music festival with concerts inside the church, and the acoustics of a building framed entirely in timber are a reason in themselves to come back in the evening.

How to get there and practical info

Location

Jawor and Świdnica, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, both just outside the former town walls

Built

Jawor 1654–1655, Świdnica 1656–1657

Architect

Albrecht von Säbisch, fortification engineer from Wrocław

UNESCO World Heritage since

2001

Distance between the two

about 35 kilometres

Time needed

roughly an hour per church, a full day for both including travel

Note

active parish churches — visiting is outside service times

Current hours and tickets

Church of Peace, Świdnica, Church of Peace, Jawor

When to go