Articular church is the name of Protestant wooden churches in Slovakia (formerly Upper Hungary). The Turkish attacks forced Emperor Leopold I to grant certain freedoms to the Protestant Christians. Therefore, according to the resolutions of the Ödenburg Landtag of 1681, Protestant congregations were allowed to erect churches outside the city walls at a fixed location, which were not allowed to have a tower or bells and no brick foundation. They had to be built without stones, bricks and metal nails (Resolutions »Articles« 25 and 26). In addition, only one church should be built in each royal free city and at most two churches in each county. As a result of these resolutions, a total of 38 Protestant churches came into being. The churches were built in the shape of a cross, modeled on the Holy Trinity Church in Schweidnitz in Silesia, and usually had a barrel vault. A total of five articular churches in Kežmarok (German Käsmark, Hungarian Késmárk), Svätý Kríž, Leštiny, Istebné and Hronsek have been preserved. Those in Kežmarok, Leštiny and Hronsek are now UNESCO World Heritage sites. The articular churches and the structural restrictions imposed on them can serve as a model for the provisions of Joseph II's patent of tolerance, which was issued 100 years later.
Source: Wikipedia