Krajné Čierno

Krajné Čierno is a small community in Okres (district) Svidník in northeastern Slovakia , which is known for its wooden church of the Greek Catholic rite from the mid-18th century.

location

Town center to the west with the golden turrets of the church built around 2005 and to the right behind the wooden church from 1930 with a matt zinc sheet roof.

Krajné Čierno is located in the Šariš region , about ten kilometers northeast of Svidník along the European route 371 , which crosses the border with Poland another ten kilometers north on the Duklapass . The one kilometer long driveway branches off to the east from the busy Europastraße to the place where it ends. The village, located at an altitude of 324 meters, is surrounded by densely forested hills, which belong to the Low Beskydy Mountains and the nearest elevation of which is Vŕšok immediately north of 502 meters. In the south hills rise to 611 and 650 meters. A watercourse flowing along the road to the west flows into the Ladomirka brook and this flows into the Ondava river . The two towns of Ladomirová (four kilometers south) and Hunkovce (two kilometers north) located directly on the European route also have Greek-Catholic wooden churches from the 18th century.

From Krajné Čierno, an approximately four-kilometer forest path continues to the southeast to Kožuchovze with a few farmhouses, which is connected to the 575 road between Stropkov and Medzilaborce via a six-kilometer cul-de-sac . A marked hiking trail leads from Kožuchovze over a ridge into the parallel valley east of Krajné Čierno to Miroľa . There and in Bodružal , three kilometers north in this valley, other Greek Catholic wooden churches have been preserved.

Townscape

Krajné Čierno is a street village that extends in an east-west direction in the valley. In the town center, north of the street, there is a wooden church from 1930 in the simple style of the older churches with rafter roofs. This includes the tripartite division into a western entrance area with a hipped roof tower, a nave with a gable roof and a lower chancel adjoining the east side. The walls are clad with vertical moldings and the roof surfaces are covered with zinc sheet. A brick-built Orthodox church with a cross-shaped floor plan and five small onion dome attachments was built directly in front of it between 2012 and 2015. The historic wooden church is around 100 meters east of the road in a fenced area and is surrounded by bushes and trees.

In addition to modern single-family houses, a few traditional, elongated farmhouses with the living area on the street and stables in the rear, as well as small free-standing log buildings, have been preserved.

Krajné Čierno is first mentioned in the sources in 1618 under the name Krainiay Czarno. For 1997 95 inhabitants were given, at the end of 2016 76 inhabitants lived in the village.

Wooden church

Wooden church of St. Basil from the south

The historic, Greek-Catholic wooden church was built around 1730 and consecrated to Saint Basil the Great , who lived in the 4th century. It is called Chrám svätého Bazila Veľkého in Slovak . The iconostasis with lavish Rococo decorations goes back to the 18th century.

The surviving Greek Catholic wooden churches in northeast Slovakia are concentrated in the districts of Svídnik, Bardejov , Snina , Sobrance and Stropkov . Most (27) were made in the 18th century, two in the 19th century, one from the end of the 15th or beginning of the 16th century and one from the 17th century.

The church of Krajné Čierno basically follows the usual plan of longitudinal trisection into a square anteroom ( narthex ) under a towering tower in the west, a slightly larger main room with a hipped roof and - separated by the iconostasis - a smaller presbytery in the east under another, lower tower. The architecture of Krajné Čierno, which is composed of three parts of the building, each with a rooftop, corresponds to the elaborate Lemkian style. In contrast to other Greek Catholic wooden churches of this type in Eastern Slovakia, such as that of Jedlinka , only a two-part structure can be seen on the outer long sides. The main room and the western anteroom are on one line, only the smaller chancel is set back.

The roofs were covered with wooden shingles, the log walls were also clad with shingles on the outside. The entrance is on the west side. The north side is windowless except for a small window in the chancel, a larger window on the south wall provides some light in the main room. The church is entered through a door on the west side. The two openings in each side of the entrance tower serve as sound holes for the one bell from 1876 .

North side

The iconostasis from the time the church was built is divided into four levels. Deviating from the usual pictorial program, five instead of four scenes are shown in the lower row: from left to right the Ascension of Christ , Saint Nicholas , Mary as the Mother of God (also known as Hodegetria ), Jesus Christ as teacher and, as everywhere on the right, the saint, the the church is dedicated, here so to Basil. This arrangement is due to the lack of the third door. While the “king's door” is generally located in the middle, through which only the priest is allowed, and the lay people enter the chancel through one of two side doors, there is only one door for priests in the iconostasis of Krajné Čierno and one to the left for laypeople. The king's door is adorned with six medallions, four of which depict evangelists and two depict the Lord's Annunciation .

The second row contains the Last Supper and pictures of the liturgical holidays on both sides. The third row consists of the twelve apostles , arranged in pairs in six medallions, with Christ as high priest in a larger format in the middle. In the fourth row, the prophets are again grouped in pairs in six medallions. The usual top is formed by a tendril in the middle with the crucifixion scene, which is flanked by Mary and the Evangelist John . An icon on the altar from the 17th century depicting the Descent from the Cross is particularly valuable .

Krajné Čierno and the wooden church were badly damaged in the skirmishes that took place in the autumn of 1944 during the Eastern Carpathian operation south of the Duklapass in the nearby Kapišová plain . The church was restored in 1947-48 and was last restored between 2000 and 2005. The normally closed church is listed as a listed building .

literature

Ernst Hochberger: The big book of Slovakia . Hochberger, Sinn 1997, p. 66, figure Ikonostase p. 378
Ernst Hochberger: Architecture, fine arts and music in Slovakia. 2.3. Greek Catholic wooden churches . In: Jörg Meier (Ed.): Contributions to the cultural history of the Germans in Slovakia . Weidler Buchverlag, Berlin 2006, pp. 162–168

Web links

Commons : Krajné Čierno - collection of images, videos and audio files

Obec Krajné Čierno . e-obce.sk (Slovak)
Krajné Čierno . drevenechramy.sk/en

Individual evidence

↑ Ernst Hochberger, 1997, p. 378
↑ Ernst Hochberger, 2006, pp. 164, 168
↑ Krajné Čierno . drevenechramy.sk/en (with picture)

[1] Ernst Hochberger, 1997, p. 378

[2] Ernst Hochberger, 2006, pp. 164, 168

[3] Krajné Čierno . drevenechramy.sk/en (with picture)