The wooden Greek Catholic Church of St. Cosmas and Damian was built in 1708. In 1740 it was rebuilt and renovated.
Exterior: On a massive stone foundation, balancing the unevenness of the terrain, stands a wooden log church representing the transition from the older central to the newer longitudinal type of East Slovak wooden churches. It has three rooms – a sanctuary, a longitudinal nave and an open vestibule above which rises a self-supporting tower of a pillar structure with bells. There is a small cellar under the sanctuary. It is the only church in Slovakia with a basement. An architectural peculiarity is the extended attic on the sides of the nave. The roof is covered with wooden shingles, from which rise three towers topped by individually designed metal crosses with original profiling.
Interior: The interior decoration is mostly in the Baroque style (the 18th century), with some icons from the 16th and 17th centuries. In the middle there is a royal door with Rococo-style carvings and paintings. The iconostasis also features a series of church holidays (“prazniks”). One of the icons depicts the face of Christ – it is not the classic Eastern rite mandylion as it is an imprint of the tortured face of Christ with a crown of thorns on Veil of Veronica. At the very top of the iconostasis is an unusual three-dimensional sculpture of Calvary. The altar with the central image of the New Testament’s St. Trinity dates from the end of the 18th century. The procession icon with paintings on both sides is from the 19th century.
One of the icons has a preserved donor inscription on its lower part, which reveals that it was donated on July 27, 1654 to the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in the Polish village of Nowa Wies (about 35 km northwest of Lukov). Over time, the church became too small for the number of believers and so was brought to Lukov and rebuilt. In 1708 it was re-consecrated. The original equipment of the church also included two mandyllions from the end of the 16th/ beginning of the 17th century and fragments of royal doors from the 16th century. In 1968, these rare monuments were moved to the Slovak National Gallery in Bratislava. The mandylion from the 16th century appeared on the first Czechoslovak postage stamp in 1970. A few years ago, the royal door, originally from a church in the Polish municipality of Leluchov, five icons of smaller dimensions and the Crucifixion, painted on canvas, were stolen.
Nevertheless, the church in Lukov – Venécia is an interesting National Cultural Monument with a rich interior and interesting architecture.
