St. Nicholas Cathedral, Ljubljana
Encyclopedia
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
in Ljubljana
Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
, the capital of Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
. It is an easily recognizable landmark of the city with its green dome
Dome
A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
and twin towers and is located on Cyril and Methodius Square by the nearby Ljubljana Central Market
Ljubljana Central Market
Ljubljana Central Market in the capital of Slovenia was designed by Jože Plečnik in 1939-41. The market building stretches between the Triple Bridge and the Dragon Bridge, following the curve of the Ljubljanica river.-History:...
and the Ljubljana town hall
Ljubljana town hall
Ljubljana Town Hall is the town hall in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It is located on the Town Square in the city centre close to the St. Nicholas Cathedral.The original building was built by the Carniolan architect Peter Bezlaj in 1584...
.
The site was originally occupied by an aisled Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
church, the oldest mention of which dates from 1262. An extensive fire in 1361 saw it refurbished in the Gothic style but underwent alterations when the Diocese of Ljubljana
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ljubljana
The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Ljubljana is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Slovenia. It was erected as the Diocese of Ljubljana by Pope Eugene IV on 6 December 1461 and was immediately subject to the Holy See from its creation until erected...
was established in 1461. However, in 1469 it was burnt down again; this time it was suspected to be arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
, presumably by the Turks
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
.
Between 1701 and 1706, Jesuit architect Andrea Pozzo
Andrea Pozzo
Andrea Pozzo was an Italian Jesuit Brother, Baroque painter and architect, decorator, stage designer, and art theoretician. He was best known for his grandiose frescoes using illusionistic technique called quadratura, in which architecture and fancy are intermixed...
designed and built a new Baroque hall church with side chapels built to resemble a Latin cross. Originally a fake dome was painted on the arch above the centre until the church's real dome was constructed, in 1841. Inside much of the original Baroque decor remains with frescoes painted by Giulio Quaglio
Giulio Quaglio (painter)
Giulio Quaglio the elder was an Italian painter of frescoes.He was a follower of Tintoretto. He is known to have worked in Vienna, Salzburg, and Ljubljana. His son, Giulio the younger, was born in Como and established himself in the Friuli about the end of the 17th century. He is best known for...
between 1703–1706 and later 1721-1723. On the southern wall is a brightly decorated pietà
Pietà
The Pietà is a subject in Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus, most often found in sculpture. As such, it is a particular form of the Lamentation of Christ, a scene from the Passion of Christ found in cycles of the Life of Christ...
, a copy of one that possibly used to be in the earlier Gothic cathedral.
Other notable decoarations in the cathedral include the altar angels by the brothers Paolo and Giuseppe Groppelli on the right part of the nave (1711) and by Francesco Robba
Francesco Robba
Francesco Robba was an Italian sculptor of the Baroque period. Even while he is regarded as the leading Baroque sculptor of marble statues in the south-east Central Europe, he has remained practically unknown to the international scholarly public.-Life:Francesco Robba was born in Venice...
on the left (1745–1750). Angelo Putti was assigned to much of the artwork, with his painting of Dean Janez Anton Dolničar (1715), who had commanded the rebuilding of the church and the statues of the four bishops of Emona
Emona
Emona or Aemona, short for Colonia Iulia emona, was a Roman castrum founded in 14-15 AD, possibly by the Legio XV Apollinaris , on a territory already populated by ancient settlers of uncertain origin...
seated under the dome beam (1712–1713). The cupola
Cupola
In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....
was added later by the architect Gregor Maček, and the dome fresco painted by Matevž Langus in 1843-44. In the 1950s, the architect Jože Plečnik
Jože Plecnik
Jože Plečnik , was a Slovene architect who practised in Vienna, Belgrade, Prague and Ljubljana.-Biography:...
made plans for new church furnishings.
In the 20th century, several of the doors were altered on the church. Tone Demšar painted a historical depiction of Slovene history
History of Slovenia
The history of Slovenia chronicles the period of the Slovene territory from the 5th Century BC to the present times. In the Early Bronze Age, Proto-Illyrian tribes settled an area stretching from present-day Albania to the city of Trieste. The Holy Roman Empire controlled the land for nearly 1,000...
to commemorate 1250th anniversary of Christianity in Slovenia, and Mirsad Begić redesigned the side doors with portraits of bishops at the church. Beyond the main door is now an automatic electric door.