Popis

The interest of the Dajama Publishers in sacral monuments culminates with the series Cultural Heritage of Slovakia. Gothic Churches – rural area is one of the books in this series. It is a continuation of Wooden Churches and Romanesque Churches and it fills in the missing piece of the mosaic of the cultural landscape of Slovakia.
Gothic Churches constitutes an important part of a cultural heritage that must be protected, cultivated, renovated and maintained. These reasons led to the publishing of a book concerned with conservation of these precious monuments. The authors were inspired by the idea that promotion of the churches may contribute to precise documentation of their condition and revitalization as well as raising public awareness in terms of their protection and renewal. Although the arrival of the Gothic style and the church construction that followed was rather delayed respect to southern and western Europe, a great number of sacral monuments from that period exist in this country. Along with the most popular buildings, our purpose is to introduce churches that are interesting for their regional significance or history. Regarding modern criteria, the list also contains churches in villages that were once boroughs. Some of these buildings are now parts of townships although they were formerly independent villages.
Rural Gothic churches were classified into several geographic units, which convey a certain message about the picture of the Gothic architecture of those times. Irregular distribution of Gothic structures in individual regions such as Gemer, Spiš or Turiec where they stand out in terms of quantity also played a role. This eventually led to a decision to divide the territory of Slovakia into four subunits: southwest, northwest, northeast and southeast.
The ambition of the book too, is to be a kind of guidebook for rural churches and to offer a complete idea before the visit itself. The presentation of each church starts with a description of the location, then continues with the history along with interesting facts associated with the building or its decor. Maps and modern photographs of the described exteriors and interiors are of course included as well.