Church of Peace - Definition and Overview

The Churches of Peace in Jawor and Swidnica, localised in Poland, Dolnoslaskie voivodship, are the largest timber-framed religious buildings in Europe. The church in Jawor is under the invocation of the Holy Ghost, the Swidnica's one under the invocation of the Holy Trinity. They were built in Silesia in the mid-17th century, at a time of religious strife following the Peace of Westphalia. Constrained by the physical and political conditions, the Churches of Peace bear testimony to the quest for religious freedom and are a rare expression of Lutheran ideology in an idiom generally associated with the Catholic Church. The Churches of Peace are entered on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.