St James's Church – Levoča (Lőcse)

St James's Church – Levoča (Lőcse)

St James's Church in Levoča (Lőcse) is the largest medieval church in the Spiš region, and its high altar by Master Paul of Levoča is the tallest Gothic winged altar carved in wood in the world. It has been part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2009 and a minor basilica since 2015.

The parish church, dedicated to St James the Greater, was begun on the site of a 13th-century church during the reign of King Charles I (Charles Robert). The three-aisled Gothic pseudo-basilica without a transept is 49.5 metres long and 20.4 metres wide. After King Matthias Corvinus visited Levoča in 1474, the church received rich late Gothic furnishings, and the chapel above the south porch, known as King Matthias's Oratory, was completed by 1494.

From 1544 to 1674 the church was used by the Lutherans; the pulpit and the organ date from this period. Gábor Bethlen, Prince of Transylvania, spent Christmas 1626 in Levoča, and a service in Hungarian was held in the church. It returned permanently to the Catholics in 1710. Members of the Thurzó family rest in the Thurzó Chapel, where the only child of Imre Thököly and Ilona Zrínyi was also buried. The present neo-Gothic tower, about 70 metres high, was built between 1852 and 1858.

The 18.62-metre high altar was carved in limewood by the workshop of Master Paul of Levoča and completed by 1517. Its central shrine holds larger-than-life statues of St James, the Madonna and St John the Evangelist; the reliefs on the open wings show scenes from the lives of the apostles, while the panels of the closed wings depict the Passion of Christ. The church also contains further Gothic winged altars – including Master Paul's Altar of the Four St Johns and his St Anne Altar – as well as medieval wall paintings of the Seven Works of Mercy and the Seven Deadly Sins.

Visiting: the church stands in the middle of Levoča's old town, on Master Paul Square (Námestie Majstra Pavla), next to the Renaissance Old Town Hall. Since 2019 the tower has also been open to visitors, with a view over the town centre. On Mariánska hora above the town stands Levoča's other great church, the pilgrimage Basilica of the Visitation.

Sources: Wikipedia · Repository of Hungarian Values in Slovakia

Photo: Ingo Mehling / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photo: Gerda Arendt / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0