The wooden Greek Catholic church of Krivé is located 14 km west of Bardejov. It was built in 1826 and is dedicated to Saint Luke the Evangelist.

Although the building is a three-part structure it looks atypically homogenous when compared to other wooden churches of similar type. Due to later repairs the churchlost itsiconic three tower architecture so typical for wooden churches of the Byzantine rite. The only tower contains two bells. 

The interior of the church holds a precious eighteenth century iconostasis composed of four rows. The first row contains the icons of Saint Bishop Nicolas, Hodegetria, Christ the Teacher and Saint Luke the Apostle. The royal doors are adorned by medallions depicting the Annunciation and the four Evangelists. The second row holds icons of liturgical feat days and these are divided in the middle of the row by the icon depicting the Last Supper. 

The third row is composed of the icons depicting the Apostles. The icon of Christ the High Priest is in the middle of the row.

The most precious icons are however located outside the iconostasis.These include the sixteenth century icon of Hodegetria, the icon of Saint Michael the Archangel as well as the icon of the Great Deisis placed on the railing of the choir. The last icon depicts Christ sitting on a throne, flanked by devoutly praying saints. 

Another artistic peculiarity is an icon depicting the baptism of Christ in the river Jordan. The author of the piece didn’t follow period conventions and depicted Christ without a halo and made the figure of Christ smaller in proportion to the figure of John the Baptist. Further atypical feature is the fact that water does not seem touch the legs of any of the depicted figures. 

These separate sixteenth century icons were probably once a part of a larger iconostasis. Nowhere else in Slovakia is a period iconostasis so well preserved as in the church of Krivé.

Last restoration works took place in the timeframe of 1965–1970. Year 2003 saw the repair of the church’s foundations. In 2006 repairs were conducted on the tower and in 2010 reconstruction works were done to the façade of the church. 

Mass takes place every Sunday at 7:30 AM and every Thursday at 4:30 PM. However during feast days the mass takes place either at 3 PM or 4:30 PM.

Location:
maps.google.com


Source:
drevenechramy.sk
 


Translated by:
Mgr. Samuel Beňa, M.A.

 


Tips for Trips:
www.tik.bardejov.travel