Sakrální architektura luteránů na Těšínsku 1781–1849

The article focuses on a group of eleven churches that were built as places of worship for of the new congregations of the Augsburg Confession in the Cieszyn (Teschen / Těšín) region during the period between the release of the Edict of Toleration (1781) and the Protestant Provisorium (1849). While the physical appearance of these new churches was significantly influenced and harmonised by the ordinances in the Edict of Toleration and the plans of the Vienna building office, many builders – noble families, pastors, and congregation representatives – managed to secure various exceptions or other ways of distinguishing or improving their church. As well as issues of funding, patronage, builders, and the difficulties that the new congregations had to overcome to construct their preaching houses, the article focuses on the shared theological and liturgical factors that necessarily influenced the design of the interior, including its furnishings, and the Protestant building tradition in Lower Silesia, the Hungarian lands, and the Cieszyn (Teschen / Těšín) region. The churches studied here represent a specific stage in Protestant 'gallery' architecture that in many ways reflect older groups of structures but at the same time create an entirely new identity for Lutheran architecture.