Church of the Meeting of the Lord in Kožany: A Greek Catholic Timber Church
Site at a Glance
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Slovakia
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Habsburg, Hungarian
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page4 sections
History
The Church of the Meeting of the Lord in Kožany is an active Greek Catholic church in Slovakia, part of an Eastern Catholic tradition that follows Eastern Christian worship while remaining in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. Its construction date is uncertain: 1760 is given as a construction or completion date, while other proposed datings place its building in 1698 or the second half of the eighteenth century.
The church serves Beloveža parish within the Bardejov deanery, a subdivision of the Prešov Archieparchy, an Eastern Catholic jurisdiction comparable to an archdiocese. It belongs to the Slovak Greek Catholic Church. Repairs and alterations took place over time. The building was restored after 1945, its painted decoration was renewed in 1969–71, and another renovation followed in 2004. It has been a Slovak National Cultural Monument since 1968.
Remains
Timber structure
The church is an oriented, two-part timber log building. Its rectangular nave is wider than the compact sanctuary, which has a square plan and a rectangular termination. At the west end of the nave stands a tower built with upright posts and horizontal framing. The tower has sloping walls and an upper chamber for the bells. One bell bears the date 1406 and is among the oldest in eastern Slovakia. The building has three domes, with log-built domes at the nave and sanctuary. The sanctuary has a three-slope roof, while the nave is covered by a broken, tent-shaped roof. Shingles cover the roofs, and planks clad the walls.
Painted interior and iconostasis
Figurative and ornamental paintings dated to 1797 decorate the nave and sanctuary. Biblical scenes and saints appear in decorative framed panels. The sanctuary’s east wall shows Christ carrying a cross with angels, while its south wall depicts the Protection of the Mother of God, a theme of the Virgin Mary’s protective intercession. In the nave, paintings include the Crucifixion, scenes from the lives of Adam and Eve, and the apostles. Dome paintings portray the Coronation of the Virgin Mary, the four Evangelists, and the Three Hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom. Adam Čajka funded the painted decoration.
The unusually arranged iconostasis, a screen of icons separating the sanctuary from the main body of the church, brings together works from different periods. Its oldest paintings date to the seventeenth century and appear on the lower panels beneath icons of Christ Pantocrator, an image of Christ as ruler of all, and the Meeting of the Lord, the presentation of Jesus at the Temple. Ignác Čajka funded some of the iconostasis icons.
