My final day in Poland sees me taking a train to Swidnica to visit one of the two remaining Peace Churches.
The "Peace" in this sense has nothing to do with hostilities in the 20th century but refers to the Peace of Westphalia, a series of treaties which, in 1648, brought to an end the Thirty Years War.
As we have already learnt, this area of Poland has changed hands many times through it's history and therefore has had to change religions also. The Thirty Years War was your typical Protestant/Catholic conflict, that ended with this area and its then sizeable Protestant population ending up under a Catholic ruler. The Peace of Westphalia therefore made provisions for the Protestants, allowing them to build churches, but of course there were strings attached ........
They had to be built - within one year, outside the town walls, no stone or brick to be used in the construction and no stone foundations. There could be no tower, belfry or bells and the building must not look like existing church buildings.
The result - Swidnica has one of the largest wooden churches in Europe, that can seat 3000 people.
For the church goers reading this you may be interested to know, that while the building can seat 3000, it is a Lutheran church and Poland is a very Catholic country. I asked how many people they get for an average Sunday service and the reply was "about 20" Fortunately the building is UNESCO listed so they get some outside funding towards its upkeep.
You have all had a bit of history overload over the past few days, so you now will be relieved to know that tomorrow I am travelling onwards to the Czech Republic where the trip will continue with a burst of hiking and the great outdoors.
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