Wooden Greek-Catholic Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian, Lukov

The wooden Greek-Catholic church of St. Cosmas and Damian was built in 1708. In 1740 it was probably substantially rebuilt and reconstructed, when it received its present form. Exterior: On a massive stone foundation, balancing the unevenness of the terrain, stands the wooden log architecture, which represents the transition from the older central to the newer longitudinal type of the eastern Slovak wooden churches. It consists of three spaces - a sanctuary, a longitudinal nave and an open vestibule, above which rises a self-supporting tower of columnar construction, topped with a room for the bells. Under the sanctuary there is a smaller cellar. It is the only basement church in Slovakia. Architectural za special feature is the extended loft on the sides of the ship. The roof is covered with wooden shingles, from which three towers rise to the west. These have an ihlanoid ending and on their tops are placed individually designed metal crosses with original profiling. Interior: The interior decoration is mostly Baroque from the 18th century, but there are also icons from the 16th and 17th centuries. The royal door in the centre has rococo carvings and paintings and shows the folk influence of the artist. Another part of the iconostasis is a series of religious feasts („primordials“), the peculiarity of which is the depiction of the face of Christ. This is because it does not represent the classical Eastern Mandylion, but the Western Veraikon, an imprint of the tortured face of Christ with a crown of thorns on Veronica's scarf. At the very top of the iconostasis is an unusual three-dimensional sculpture of Calvary. The altar with the central image of the New Testament Holy Trinity dates from the end of the 18th century. The processional icon with images on both sides is from the 19th century. One of the icons has a preserved donor's inscription on its lower part, which reveals that it was donated on 27 July 1654 to the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the Polish village of Nowa Wies (about 35 km north-west of Lukov). Historical sources indicate that it was this church. Over time it became unsuitable and redundant. Therefore, it was bought from there, transported and rebuilt. In 1708 it was probably re-consecrated, receiving the new patronage of St. Cosmas and Damian. Among the original furnishings of the church were two Mandylions from the end of the 16th or 17th century and fragments of a royal door from the 16th century. In 1968, these precious monuments were moved to the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava. The 16th-century mandylon also appeared on the first Czechoslovak postage stamp in 1970. We must not forget the fact that befell this church a few years ago, when a royal door from 1628, originally from a church in the Polish village of Leluchov, five smaller icons and the Crucifixion, painted on canvas, were stolen from its bowels. Despite this, the church in Lukov-Venetia remains an interesting A national cultural monument with a rich interior and interesting architecture.