Wooden church of the Great Martyr Dimitrij of Solun, Medvedie
One of the few wooden churches belonging to the Orthodox Church has been preserved in the little village of Medvedie at the foot of the Lower Beskydy hills near the Polish border. The first written mention of this village, which ranks among the smallest in Slovakia with the area of its grounds, dates from the late 16th century, when it is referred to as the “Medvecza” settlement. “Medveď” is Slovak for “bear”, and the symbol of the rearing bear of the official seal from 1787 forms the main motif of the village coat-of-arms. The church consecrated to the Great Martyr Dimitrij of Solun (now Thessaloniki) has stood on the hillside here since 1903, and many believe that it wad moved to the present spot from the neighboring village of Šarbov. The tripartite log-built structure rests on high stone plinth walls, and has been additionally rendered, almost losing the characteristic look of a wooden building. Many other features also interfere crudely with its original architecture, scale and composition. The metal cover of the porch over the entrance steps, the plastic cladding of the interior and the shiny tin sheeting of the pavilion roofs and the onion-shaped steeples do not lend the church the necessary aesthetic qualities. The interior furnishings date from 1947.
