Bekevar Church

Bekevar Church is a Municipal Heritage Property located within the Rural Municipality of Hazelwood No. 94, approximately nine kilometres southeast of the Town of Kipling. The property features a large, wood-frame church with twin spires, built in 1911, an iron gate adorning the property's entranceway, and a cemetery, all surrounded by landscaped, treed grounds.

The heritage value of the Bekevar Church lies in its architecture. Representative of the Hungarians who settled in the area, the property follows traditional church design, incorporating Gothic Revival-inspired towers and pointed-arch windows in the building. These elements complement an interior layout, inspired by the Great Church in Debrecen, Hungary, features a sharply truncated nave and an unusually large transept comprising the main body of the church, an uncommon arrangement in Saskatchewan. The congregation is predominately seated in the transept in a semi-circular fashion around the sanctuary. Built between 1911 and 1912, the Bekevar Church is the last remaining building from the Hungarian settlement of Bekevar.

Heritage value also lies in the property’s landscape design. The church’s position on a small knoll increases the building’s profile by making it more visible from the surrounding area. The property also features a large field bordered by a shelter belt and several small tree groves which accent the small central knoll. The careful landscaping of the grounds and the positioning of the church emphasize the property's importance to the congregation. The signage entering the property features the use of Hungarian to welcome visitors, reminding them of the ethnic heritage of the parishioners.

Source:

Rural Municipality of Hazelwood No. 94 Bylaw No. 2-96.

The heritage value of the Bekevar Church resides in the following character-defining elements:

-those elements that reflect the Hungarian-inspired layout of the building's interior, including the spatial relation between the transept and the nave, the location of the main entranceway, and the arrangement of the pews curving around the pulpit;

-those elements that reflect the church’s Hungarian-inspired Gothic Revival architecture, such as the two spire-topped towers, circular windows with tracery, belfry, central gable and pointed-arch windows;

-those elements that contribute to the property’s landscape design, such as the church’s location on a knoll overlooking the grounds, and the large open space bordered by several tree groves.