Church of St Barbara, Velika Mlaka

The Church of St Barbara stands in the western part of the settlement of Velika Mlaka, in the town of Velika Gorica in Zagreb County. It is a wooden church, and it will attract visitors as an example of Turopolje vernacular building and because of its unusually painted interior.

Construction began in 1642. Over the following centuries the church was extended several times, and it took its final form in 1912 with the addition of a porch in front of the southern entrance. It is a single-nave wooden building with a sanctuary closed on three sides and a rectangular bell tower over the main façade. The entire interior is painted with Baroque floral and figural motifs, among which stands out a depiction of St Kümmernis, iconographically very rare in Croatia. The church is regarded as a representative example of Turopolje vernacular architectural heritage.

The Church of St Barbara is a protected cultural good and is entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia under the code Z-2439. It belongs to sacred architectural heritage.

Photo: Fraxinus, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Data: Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia (Ministry of Culture and Media), Open Licence; coordinates: Wikidata (CC0).