Levoča Lutheran Church

The town, with its Saxon (zipszer) population, became uniformly Lutheran in the century of the Reformation, so the parish church of St. James on the main square came into use by this community. In the middle of the 17th century, under pressure from the Counter-Reformation, the Protestants were forced out of the main square church: they had to return it to the Catholics. In 1687, with the help of Count Csáky, they were able to obtain a plot of land outside the city walls, where they could build a church and school - made of wood, without a tower - and where they could also hold burials. In 1709, this articular wooden church burned down. In its place, a house of worship similar to the wooden church that still stands in Késmárk was built here in 1712-13, to which a small chapel built of stone was also attached in 1722. This cemetery church survived until 1837, when the city's Evangelicals were able to build their church on the main square of the city, which still stands today. ; The current Evangelical church was built between 1825 and 1837 on the site of the city market. It is a classicist-style building with a Greek cross floor plan, with restrained ornamentation, and is covered with a huge central dome. Its builder was the Moravian architect Antal Povolny, who arrived in Levoča from Eger in 1806 and also designed the large county hall. The large church can accommodate 1,500 people. All the valuables, paintings, crosses, organ, etc. of the old wooden church that had been used up were transferred to this new church. Its altarpiece was painted by the Levoča painter József Czauczik. Later, at the end of the 19th century, the rich Levoča Evangelical church library was placed in the church gallery.