Wooden Churches

Wooden churches are one of the most delightful things I've experienced. The first two pictures here are from a church we visited in the south of Poland; the last three pictures are from a church in Trocany/Bardejov, Eastern Slovakia. These churches are built using only wooden (even the nails are wood). They are covered with shingles and are very small. The one in Poland was decorated with folk painting--mostly brightly colored patterns. The church in Slovakia was much more sparse, decorated with icons on the walls. The center picture is of the altar and sitting there is a 15th century, hand-written Bible. Because there are so few visitors, the tour guide (who we called on the cell phone to let us into the church) placed no restrictions on what we could see or touch. This points to a significant problem, actually--Slovakia has so many things worth preserving and not enough money to preserve them with.