What all these buildings have in common is that with the available material wood and the most
modest means places of worship centres in the villages were built with much feeling and
love. The constructions in wood were derived in an old tradition from the dwellings and farm
buildings of the peasant population. Their architecture with their typological forms probably
penetrated into this seclusion as an idea. »The idea of a church as a building« brought with
them by clergymen and wandering master craftsmen from the more fertile plains and the rich
large mining and trading towns. The oldest churches were built as early as in the 15th century
most of those still standing were built in the 18th and 19th centuries and quite a few are
still being built today. Many were destroyed in the two world wars many fell victim to ethnic
cleansing after 1945. Many were destroyed in the two world wars many fell victim to ethnic
cleansing after 1945 some fell into disrepair during the Soviet era others were burnt down by
lightning or short circuits and quite a few simply gave way to the more »represen- tative«
stone churches as early as the 19th century. But a large number are still standing consecrated
and believers gather in them. In fact almost of them in the various Carpathian countries are
protected monuments and many have been lovingly restored in recent times. More than the
architectural-historical value the question arises here of the aesthetic assessment of these
small buildings. It is not a refined canon of forms of great architecture that can be derived
and proven from the history of architecture that inspires us so much. Basically they are not
overly sophisticated constructions in terms of craftsmanship they are safe and beautiful in
their simplicity. Their aesthetic appeal however also includes the surface-weathered material
deformed structures colour improvisations recently ornamented sheet metal inside wall
paintings altar and iconostasis furnishings derived from Renaissance and Baroque periods but
above all their location in the village mostly isolated often elevated surrounded by old
trees enclosures and graves without cemetery order. Siegfried von Quast came from an old
Prussian noble family. His great-grandfather Allexander Ferdinand von Quast (1807-1877) was a
pupil of Karl Friedrich Schinkel and from 1843 the first Prussian state conservator. In
addition to his work in Prussia he also took part in Schinkel's considerations for a royal
residence for Otto I on the Acropolis in Athens. Siegfried von Quast (1931-2017) first studied
philosophy German literature and art history and then architecture (among others with Egon
Eiermann in Karlsruhe). As an architectural photographer he was a sought-after partner for
renowned architectural firms. His freelance artistic activity was primarily the photographic
recording of the wooden churches in Eastern Europe. He devoted himself almost exclusively to
this task for many years.
