EVANGELIC LUTHERAN CHURCH
- Tel: (044) 559 26 22.
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daily.
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Sun 9am.
SVÄTÝ KRÍŽ
- 20 km (12 miles) E of Ružomberok.
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680.
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from Ružomberok.
The Protestant Evangelic Lutheran Church in the village of Svätý Kríž is one of the largest timber churches in Europe. This vast building has an area of 659 sq m (7,090 sq ft). It was transported to its present site from the village of Palúdza, which in 1982 was flooded to form the artificial lake of Liptovská Mara.
The church was built in 1774, when Emperor Leopold let Protestants put up churches, on condition that they were built of timber and outside town boundaries. It was constructed by a local carpenter, Jozef Lang, with 40 helpers, without the use of a single nail and without help from any architect. It took them eight months and 22 days. The church can accommodate 6,000 people.
ENVIRONS
Vlkolínec , near the large, industrial town of Ružomberok, was in 1993 named a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site as a unique example of a well-preserved complex of 45 timber houses in a typical village of the Liptov region. Interesting features include the old well, which still supplies the village with water, and the 1770 belfry of the Baroque Church of the Virgin Mary.
