Results of the Anonymous Contest for the Art Design of a Silver Collector Coin in Nominal Value of 10 Euro UNESCO World Heritage – Wooden Temples in the Slovak Part of the Carpathian Arch

Third prize and realization
Mgr. art. Patrik Kovačovský

First prize
Karol Ličko

Second prize
akad. soch. Vojtech Pohanka

Third prize
Pavel Károly

In March 2009, Národná banka Slovenska announced an anonymous public contest for the art design of a silver collector coin in nominal value of 10 euro themed “UNESCO World Heritage – Wooden Temples in the Slovak Part of the Carpathian Arch”. Fourteen authors submitted in the contest a total of fourteen artworks. The Committee for the Assessment of Art Designs of Slovak Euro Coins assessed them in June 2009. The Committee’s expert advisors were Ing. arch. Viera Dvořáková, head of the Department of monument localities, archeology and world heritage of the Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic and Ing. Miloš Dudáš, CSc., director of the Regional Monuments Board in Žilina.

The Committee recommended for production the design by Karol Ličko who was awarded first prize in the contest. The Committee appreciated that the author depicted in his design the temples of all three Christian confessions – Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic and Lutheran – as recommended in the contest terms. It also welcomed the balanced and compact composition of both sides, suitably supplemented with a fine font. The averse portrays the temples of Hronsek, Ladomírová and Hervartov, while for the reverse the author chose the tsar door of the Ladomírová iconostas complemented with contours of the framed construction of the Hronsek temple. The reverse composition culminates with a motif that is universal for all the three confessions – the Eye of God.

Although the expert committee put forward the above art design, the Governor of the NBS exercised his right under the contest terms and conditions to decide differently from the committee recommendation and, on the basis of his authorization by the Bank Board of the NBS, passed for realization the art design by Mgr. art. Patrik Kovačovský that was awarded reduced third prize in the contest. This design also depicts the temples of all three confessions. The averse pictures the temples of Bodružal, Hronsek and Tvrdošín, while the reverse depicts temples in Ruská Bystrá and Hervartov. The composition is unified on both sides by a motif of a road connecting the particular temples inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Bank Board decided that the coin will be included in the international project “Joint Issues of Europe” which, in 2010, will focus on European architecture. For this reason, the averse of the design is supplemented with the logo of the project – the European star together with the euro symbol.

The design by academic sculptor Vojtech Pohanka was awarded reduced second prize. The Committee appreciated the design’s high quality, particularly the reverse side with a well-conceived compositional grouping of temples in Hronsek, Hervartov and Bodružal. The drawback of this design is that it depicts a Madonna and Infant from Jalová, i.e. a temple not included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Another reduced third prize was awarded to the design by Pavol Károly, in which the Committee appreciated an inventive utilization of a cross-sectioned tree trunk with pronounced wood structure along which, on the reverse, are motifs of all the eight temples listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The averse depicts the Hronsek belfry supplemented by a cross-section of a tree trunk.