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Cathedral of Saint James is the most famous
structure in Sibenik as it is on a UNESCO World Heritage list.
Original Cathedral of Saint James dates back to 1298, but growing
population of Sibenik raised a necessity of construction a larger
church to house all the residents. Church was constructed started in
1431 and lasted for over a century. Cathedral of Saint James was
finally finished in 1536 in a splendid Italian Renaissance
architectural styles. Its dome reached a height of 32 meters on the
inside.
Cathedral of Saint James design and construction was
performed under supervision of several Croatian and Italian
architects including Francesco di Giacomo, Lorenzo Pincino, Pier
Paolo Bussato, Bonino da Milano, Giorgio da Sebenico, Andrija Budcic
and Grubis Slafcic. Due to the length of its construction and
several generations of different architects the main church of
Sibenik acquired both Gothic and Renaissance styles. Cathedral of
Saint James was finally consecrated in 1555. It underwent some minor
renovation projects between 1850 and 1860.
During recent
Balkan wars Cathedral of Saint James got some minor damages in 1991,
but it was repaired since then.
History
The construction of the new cathedral
was symbolically the culmination of the city's centuries-long
aspiration to separate from the Trogir diocese and to gain communal
autonomy in addition to its own church. It was built on the south
side of the central old town square, on the site of the Romanesque
church of St. Jacob.
The idea of building a large cathedral
dates back to 1298, when Šibenik received its own diocese and the
title of city. The decision on the construction and the beginning of
the preparatory works was made in 1402. Construction, however, began
only in 1431 and lasted intermittently until 1536. For the first
decade, Venetian Gothic builders and Šibenik stonemasons Andrija
Budčić and Budiša Statčić worked on its construction. During this
time, the southern and northern walls, the lower, Gothic part of the
façade and both portals of the church were built. Juraj Dalmatinac,
Radivoj Bogosalić, Radonja Grubačević and Nikola Marković worked at
the cathedral.
During the founding of the diocese in 1298,
the existing church of St. St. James in the main town square was
promoted to a cathedral, but as it was small and inappropriate it
was decided on the same occasion that the bishop and the city
provide funds for the construction of a new cathedral. At the end of
the 14th century, after the Venetian invasion, the old cathedral of
St. Jakov damaged, it was decided to build a new one and in 1402,
with the efforts of Bishop Bogdan Pulšić, a fund for its
construction was established. Due to unfavorable political
circumstances, and then various other misfortunes that befell
Šibenik (plagues and fires), the construction of the new cathedral
began only three decades later with the laying of the foundation
stone in 1431. The cathedral was completed in 1536, and in 1555 it
was consecrated by Bishop Ivan Lucije Štafilić. After a thorough
renovation in the 19th century, the cathedral was rededicated in
1860.
Developmental stages and stylistic features
The
creation of the cathedral includes three different stylistic and
developmental phases, the first of which is named after Bishop Bogan
Pulšić (1402-1437) who began its construction, while the remaining
two are named after two of the most important architects who defined
its current character - Juraj Matijev. Dalmatian and Nikola Ivanov
Florentine. During the century-long period of construction, the
cathedral was created by successive changes of three different
architectural conceptions, changing three different styles: the
first Gothic, the second mixed Gothic-Renaissance and the third
Renaissance.
The first period of construction (1431 - 1441),
the so-called "Pulšić Cathedral"
It begins in 1428 with the
decision of the city council that a new cathedral should be erected
in a more convenient place in the northern part of the city. Bonino
da Milano as the "primus magister ecclesie Sancti Jacobi"
(1428-1429) made the first project of the cathedral to be erected on
the site of the church of St. Trinity (today St. John), but due to
his death he managed to only partially complete some sculptural
parts of the main portal (today they are located on the existing two
portals of the cathedral. Giacomoiz of Venice (1430-1431) modified
his project and adapted it for construction on the existing site
where the old cathedral was still located.By laying the foundations
on the northwest corner of the façade (April 9, 1431), construction
began on a new cathedral. expired one-year contract, come Antonio di
Pierpaolo Busato and Lorenzo Pincino, Venetian masters who work on
the cathedral for the next ten years.Due to difficulties in laying
the foundations and the realization of the sanctuary extended across
the street, construction stopped in the early 1940s In 1441 he
concluded a contract with Juraj Matejev from Zadar pro
prohtomagistro fabrice E cclesiae Cathedralis.
The second
period of construction (1441-1473), the so-called "St. George's
Cathedral"
It takes place in two separate stages, among which is
a longer, five-year period of interruption. In the initial phase of
work on the cathedral (1441-1455), Juraj Dalmatinac (Georgius Mathei
Dalmaticus) is a new three-passive sanctuary that still includes a
baptistery built into the foundations of the southern apse
(1443-44), and an adjoining sacristy with a treasury on the first
floor ( 1450-54). At the same time, the longitudinal walls of the
church were completed to the height of the hanging arches, while in
the interior, according to the new project of master George,
together with the vaulted chapels of the side naves, the arcades of
the main nave were raised to the same height. At the time of the
cessation of works in 1455, high substructures of the polygonal
sanctuary were built up to the level of the wreath with heads, ie to
the level of the floor of the presbytery in the interior. The
initial phase of construction of the cathedral is marked by
spatial-functional adaptation and modernization of the previous
project, and a series of inventive, primarily architectural and
decorative solutions used in the construction of the sanctuary
("assembly technique" of building large stone blocks and wreaths of
individualized life-size heads).
In the second phase of work on the cathedral
(1461-1473), the works were concentrated only on the erection of the
polygonal walls of the sanctuary, whereby two consecutive stages can
be distinguished. The first stage (1461-1465) is marked by the
appearance of a new, early Renaissance decorative repertoire of a
predominantly painterly character originating from painters from the
circle of F. Squarcione and the Donatella workshop in Padua. they
play and dance, the so-called "Malipier's party"). The second stage
appears after George's stay in Dubrovnik (1465-1473), and is marked
by the appearance of structurally more mature compositions and
stylistically cleaner motifs of Tuscan origin (windows of the main
apse) created under the influence of Florentine masters from the
circle of Michelloz di Bartolomeo employed in Dubrovnik before
George's arrival. In the final period of work on the cathedral,
Juraj Dalmatinac placed a relief of St. John the Baptist on the
north wall of the sanctuary chapel, under the archivolt with the
coat of arms of Prince S. Malipier (1465-68). Jerome of the desert.
Juraj Dalmatinac died on October 10, 1473.
The third period
of construction (1475-1536), the so-called "Nikolina Cathedral"
It begins with the appointment of Nicolas Ivanov of Florence
(Niccolo di Giovanni Fiorentino) as the new protomaster (1475). The
Florentine finds the cathedral completed to the height of the
perimeter walls of the sanctuary and the walls of the side naves,
but mutually inconsistent and unconnected, and with numerous
irregularities in the layout of the entire choir (thinned and broken
walls of the sanctuary and transept in the interior). By 1477,
Nikola Firentinac was preparing a project to complete the entire
upper part of the cathedral and began to renovate the side chapels
of the sanctuary. Changing the earlier conception of a three-nave
open-roofed basilica into a barrel-vaulted church, Nikola first
levels the sanctuary and the three-nave corpus of the church, and
then, with a strong, all 'antique wreath, clearly separates the
previously built parts from its new upper part.
By adapting
George's "assembly technique" of construction, Nikola Firentinac
erected short barrel vaults over the side chapels of the sanctuary,
composed of long stone slabs stacked (completed by 1479). Preparing
a proper and solid building substructure for the equally conceived
large vaults of the church, Nikola straightens and strengthens the
walls of the choir, and very quickly (until 1483) raises them to the
level of the vault. In doing so, it applies complex engineering
solutions - hidden in the thickness of the wall metal clamps, and
cantilevered "flat arch" (piattabanda). Barrel vaults and a cross
with an octagonal tambour-lantern and a dome were built until 1499.
That year, Nikola stopped performing the duty of protomaster and,
under his own direction, signed a contract for the production of
stone furniture in the sanctuary. In addition to the dome, at the
time of his death (1506/1507), two more barrel vaults were erected
above the main nave, and in the plane with them, the square-vaulted
vaults above the side naves. Although the cathedral was built for
another three decades after his death, it was completely completed
according to his project. After Nicholas of Florence, two other
architects held the position of protomaster - Bartolomeo of Mestre
(from 1520), and then his son Jacob. By the time the construction
work was completed, they had vaulted the remaining four aisles of
the main and side naves, and erected the upper "three-leafed" part
of the west façade.
Renovations and restorations
Since the
16th century, the cathedral has undergone numerous minor repairs,
primarily due to water leaks. In the second half of the 19th
century, with the efforts of the Šibenik architect Paolo Bioni and
with the support of the Austrian government, a thorough and
comprehensive restoration was carried out (1843-1860). After the
Second World War, the sacristy was completely restored (1947-49),
and the static restoration of the cathedral was carried out by
changing the iron trusses (1961). Three grenades fired from a former
JNA ship on September 18, 1991, pierced the cathedral's dome. Dome
damage was repaired from August 23, 1996 to March 14, 1997, and the
maintenance (cleaning) and monitoring program continues.