Transsylvania Nostra Journal

The Calvinist Church in Valea Voineşti, part of Covasna Town, is considered as one of the less significant buildings in Szeklerland. The church classified as a late historicist building was erected in 1930-1931, being most probably the work of a local master builder. However, the Calvinist community here has an architectural history that is much richer than what we can see today, this being most evident in the documents preserved in the Central Collecting Archives of the Transylvanian Calvinist Diocese. The two wooden buildings that preceded this church are mentioned by pastor Sándor HAVADTŐY in his short monograph on the parish (1933). He dated the latter building to 1852, being highly valuable for the Transylvanian architectural research, since it might have been unique in the region in terms of its ground plan. The wooden church demolished in 1930 had been surveyed in 1929 by László DEBRECZENI, from whose drawings, photographs, and correspondence we are able to get acquainted with the old church. The Transylvanian Calvinist wooden churches dating back to the 17^th-19^th centuries have disappeared almost entirely by today, although they might have been typical for the early protestant religious architecture. Beyond the buildings we have today, these rather modest village churches shine a new light upon Transylvanian Calvinist religious architecture, as well as upon the early protestant religious architecture in general, that is why the present study on the church in Valea Voineşti aims at introducing this type of building into the professional discourse.

Keywords: Calvinist, wooden church, Transylvania, Trei Scaune, Covasna, Valea Voineşti, László DEBRECZENI