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The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed
Virgin Mary and Saints Stephen and Ladislav, or the Zagreb
Cathedral, is the largest Croatian sacred building and one of the
most valuable monuments of Croatian cultural heritage. It is the
capital of the Zagreb Archdiocese and Metropolis and the symbol of
the City of Zagreb. The most monumental is the Gothic sacral
building southeast of the Alps. It is the first and most significant
Gothic building in Croatia. Giants of Croatian history such as Fran
Krsto Frankapan, Petar Zrinski, Ivan Antun Zrinski, Alojzije
Stepinac, Franjo Šeper and Franjo Kuharić are buried in it.
The history of the Zagreb Cathedral is still insufficiently
researched and there are many unknowns, doubts and assumptions about
it. According to Ljuba Karaman, "the Zagreb Cathedral is an example
of the first beginnings of Central European Gothic".
Before
the earthquake and the collapse of the towers, it was 105 meters
high, but now it is 92 meters high.
The Zagreb diocese was founded by King Ladislav in 1094 and
subordinated to the archdiocese of Ostrogon. In the same year, according
to Croatian tradition, the cathedral was also founded. There is no
unequivocal answer in the literature to the question of whether the
founder of the diocese, Ladislav, really had the cathedral built, or
whether an existing church was used for these needs. There is even an
assumption that it could have been a Benedictine church, which belonged
to their monastery. One of the arguments against the theory according to
which King Ladislav was the founder is supported by the fact that the
king died only one year after the foundation of the cathedral. It is
therefore considered that he did not have enough time to bring this
project to an end. Even more important is the fact that his contribution
to the construction of the cathedral was not recorded in the document of
Archbishop Felician, who would certainly have mentioned such a thing.
Almost all researchers agree that the oldest Zagreb cathedral was
built on the site where the present one is located, but it is not
entirely certain where exactly it was located. The first cathedral was
most likely single-aisled and, like many Hungarian sacral buildings of
that era, ended with an apse.
King Ladislav also contributed to
the diocese by bringing Čech Duha and appointing him as the first bishop
of the Zagreb Diocese, whose activities made the diocese a strong core
of cultural development in this area from the very beginning. Several
precious manuscript books that the Spirit brought to Zagreb have also
been preserved (presumably the Zagreb Plenary is among them).
The
importance of the founding of the Diocese of Zagreb for the history of
the city of Zagreb is expressed in the words of Nada Klaić: "With the
founding of the diocese, prehistory ends and the real history of Zagreb
begins." The diocese would not have been created if Zagreb had not been
a populated place of some importance, a strong defensive point and a
traditional holy position".
We do not know the appearance of the first cathedral, but that is why we already know much more about the first following cathedral, whose appearance is preserved on the seal of the Chapter from 1297 and on the mirror copy of the sealer from 1371. It was a large, three-nave building with three apses and two bell towers on the front, and it encompassed the space from the bell tower to the sanctuary of today's cathedral. The two-tower facade, the basilica body of the building, as well as the apse are clearly visible on the seal. Also, the massiveness and closedness of the towers towards the interior of today's cathedral is attributed precisely to the pre-Mongol phase of the building. Ana Dejanović's dating, which places the pre-Tartar church in the second half of the 12th century, is supported by the excavations and the found remains of buttresses that first appeared in the middle of the 12th century in France. Two massive buttresses interconnected by a wall, which have been preserved on the south side of the church, are also attributed to this phase, because research has confirmed that these strong buttresses belong to the same type that appeared in France at the end of the 12th century. That part belongs to the northern part of the chapel of St. Stjepan, which today is embedded within the walls surrounding the cathedral. The completion of this sacral building is almost reliably determined by Ivan Gorički, who in his records records the burial in the nave of the church of the three first bishops. The oldest recorded bishop Prodan (died around 1175), and for this reason his burial is taken as the lower limit when the pre-Tartar church could have been completed. Another argument is the fact that the other two bishops, Dominik and Gothard, were buried under the same altar. It is unlikely that church dignitaries would be buried in an unfinished building. The end of this building was recorded in numerous documents of that period that mention the Mongol invasion in the middle of the 13th century.
After the aforementioned Mongol invasion, the church was not restored
for a long time. What Bishop Stjepan II is building after thirty years.
is the chapel of St. Stjepan the First Martyr.
The chapel is
located towards the middle of the cathedral, but not as an independent
building, but merged with the massive walls of the bishop's palace. It
has small dimensions, and its interior is divided into two large bays,
while its vault is cross-ribbed, almost domed.
Today, only the
interior of the original chapel is preserved, which is decorated with
relatively well-preserved frescoes with characteristics of the late
Giotto school. The author of the frescoes was called the Master of St.
Stephen's Chapel. He divided the space into three horizontal parts. The
upper part is reserved for Christ who reigns with dignity surrounded by
evangelists and prophets, in the middle part Christ's earthly life is
shown, while in the lower part the paintings and draperies are painted.
The three-part rhythm followed all the way to the southern part of the
western wall, where in the upper row there is a half-figure of Christ
blessing, in the second there are figures of saints, while in the lowest
row there is a plinth that has not been started. All these frescoes have
the characteristics of the master Giotto's school. As the north side of
the chapel, a wall made of broken stone was used, connecting two massive
buttresses, i.e. parts of the pre-Tartar church. This determined the
north-south orientation, and the collected evidence indicates that the
altar was located on the south wall. The rest of the walls were built in
brick, to be finished in the southern part with decorations from
Romanesque blind arcades. The sources mention the obvious influence of
Lombardy and that of the construction developed by the "beggar orders"
(the size of the bricks used, the five-leaf rosette, the round
three-leaf window, the uniqueness of the volume, without the apse
prominent in the space), while the external wall canvas uses the term
transitional Romanesque-Gothic style ( semicircular blind arcades,
buttresses).
After the Mongol attacks, several documents were written about the
degree of damage they caused to the church. It was precisely this number
of documents and different perceptions of the attacks that caused many
researchers over the years to be uncertain about defining the damage
that was caused.
The first bishop who started the restoration was
Timothy, as recorded in the confirmation. It also records that he began
to restore it from the ground up in a new contemporary style (Gothic),
as well as that he furnished it with decorations and silverware. The
year 1275 was also recorded as the year of dedication of the altar of
St. Peter and Paul in the sacristy, and then in 1284, when he
consecrated Ladislav's altar in the chapel of St. Maria. All these data
support the fact that Bishop Timotej had the main apse built together
with the sanctuary. Excavations have shown that a new way of floor plan
concept (triangulation) was used and that is why, not following the old
foundations, the sanctuary was started as a hexagon. It follows that the
sanctuary had three polygonal apses, of which the middle one was larger
and elongated to the east so that a cylindrical staircase could be built
between them. Corsian seats with a trefoil Gothic arch as an end, were
lined up along the apse.
As for architectural plastic, due to
numerous restorations it is not easy to determine what all belonged to
Timotej's collection. The frescoes attributed to that time belong to the
cycle of the oldest in Zagreb and in the whole of mainland Croatia. They
are damaged, but parts are preserved in the sacristy, more precisely in
its eastern part.
This period of the "Timothy complex" was named
so precisely because of the role played by the bishop in the
construction of a larger spatial unit united by the same idea, i.e. the
same stylistic characteristics. The high quality of performance is
emphasized, which can be seen today in the details of preserved
paintings or decorations. In the treasury of the cathedral there are
preserved valuables such as church vestments, dishes, manuscript books,
reliquaries and other ritual objects.
After the death of Bishop Timotej, there was a period in which the
cathedral was waiting for the continuation of construction, and there
are different opinions about the time when this happened. Some believe
that construction continued during the time of Bishop Kažotić, who is
credited with part of the begun walls of the northern nave and the
northern belfry. On the other hand, it is possible that Bishop Kažotić
only repaired the building and possibly furnished it, while Bishop Jakob
de Placentij started construction. Further changes took place during the
time of Bishop Stephen II. Kanižaj and Eberhard Alben. Bishop Stephen
III. he recorded his contribution in the construction of the nave with a
coat of arms, while he imagined the nave as a basilica. It is also
possible that in Stephen's time it was decided to preserve the ruins of
the belfry and to build traves between them. New, beveled and simple
buttresses were placed outside on the northern side, while on the
southern side they are later, but more richly decorated. At that time,
the facade had a Romanesque portal and probably a rosette.
With
Eberhard's arrival, the cathedral began to follow the typology of the
hall church with all the changes that were necessary to realize it
(elevation and alteration of the facade decorated with a cordon wreath
with lilies, blind circles and maskerons). There were also changes
inside the nave: the windows, columns and outside buttresses where
Bishop Eberhard placed his coat of arms, above the coat of arms of his
predecessor, were raised. Traces of Eberhard's work were found all the
way to the southwest corner of the interior, and the facade and the back
of the south bell tower are also attributed to him. Nevertheless,
hypotheses continue when it comes to solving the doubt as to how they
connected the nave and Timotej's complex, because it was in that place
that many things were restored and changed.
We should mention the
work of the Prague workshops that left their mark on our cathedral. This
primarily refers to the reliefs, more precisely the masks of the Parler
circle, which are placed in the interior, but also on the outer mantle
of the cathedral. The "wonderful gallery of the Zagreb Cathedral", as A.
Horvat describes it, are the most valuable sculptural works we own. The
works show leafy faces, depictions of dogs, lions, griffins and
fantastic animals interwoven with plant ornaments. They show the range
in quality of that Prague workshop. In the middle of the 15th century
century, when Ivan Alben sat at the head of the diocese, the cathedral
was, we can say, a completed work that he supplemented. This refers to
the capitals of newer forms (curly leaves) in some parts of the church
and to his coat of arms which he added. Bishop Luka Baratin installed
cross-ribbed vaults and invested money for the construction of
fortifications. We do not have certain information whether he restored
the bell towers which, it is mentioned, perished in the siege in 1528.
Three emporiums in the western passage of the same room are
attributed to Bishop Thuz, as well as the gable decorations above the
choir seats (Bollé later removed them). The sumptuous altars and other
furniture are also attributed to the same bishop, while the altar in
Ladislav's chapel dates back to the time of Bishop Osvald. In the nave,
a large number of lavish altars dedicated to saints such as St. Emerik,
St. Nicholas, St. Barbara, St. Elizabeth and others. The first bells
were installed in the chapel of St. Ladislav (the work of the Florentine
artist Ivan Nicze), while those in the nave were installed a little
later. The gilded wooden statues, the six apostles, which were located
on the pillars of the nave, were preserved until the 19th century when
they were removed. They were found by Anđela Horvat (only two statues),
who dated them to the 15th century and determined them stylistically as
late Gothic statues. Those two statues are of great importance, because
they are the only cathedral plastic statues in Croatia.
With
Bollé's arrival, the chapel and sanctuary lost their original shape, and
the choir seats were replaced. Bollé also demolished the western wall of
the sacristy, which divided the space into the "inner" and "outer"
sacristy, and on which there was a depiction of the Last Judgment. It is
assumed that the northern wall was also restored in his time. On the
east side of the sacristy, there is a historicist addition where, it is
assumed, the altar used to be.
Bishop Timotej (1263 – 1287) is responsible for the first renovations
of the cathedral, who began to thoroughly restore it in the Gothic style
after it was badly damaged by Mongol raids (in 1242).
Reconstruction continued in the 14th and 15th centuries. In the 16th
century, the cathedral was fortified with walls and towers (Bakačeva
kula, etc.), and between 1633 and 1641 it got its massive Renaissance
tower, designed by Ivan Alberthal (German Hans Alberthal), which was in
the cathedral in 1632. carried out a mesh Late Gothic vault. Fires and
the onslaught of the enemy damaged it several times, but the heaviest
blow came in the Great Earthquake of 1880. After the earthquake, the
cathedral was thoroughly renovated in the Neo-Gothic style (1880 –
1906), according to the plans of the Viennese builder F. Schmidt, and
the construction was led by Hermann Bollé. Bollé, carrying out the
restoration work, will partially modify Schmidt's original projects,
especially the solutions for the tops of the towers. Part of the towers
was then demolished.
In this restoration, Zagreb's cathedral
church got its present form with two slender towers, a high roof, new
columns in the sanctuary and altars that replaced most of the baroque
altars from the 18th century. It was covered with a sumptuous roof made
of glazed tiles, which was later unfortunately removed. Instead of the
old tombs of bishops and dignitaries, a new tomb for the Archbishops of
Zagreb was built behind the main altar.
Along with other great
men, the Croatian martyrs Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan rest
here, whose bones were transferred here on April 28, 1919 from Vienna's
New Town (Wiener Neustadt) and buried on April 30, 1919. Petar Zrinski's
son, Count Ivan Antun Zrinski (his remains organized by the "Brothers of
the Croatian Dragon" Society were transferred on February 26, 1944 and
buried on March 4, 1944), Eugen Kvaternik (his remains were transferred
and buried in 1921) and others. The last three archbishops of Zagreb are
also buried there: staff members Alojzije Stepinac, Franjo Šeper and
Franjo Kuharić.
Since 1990, the Zagreb Cathedral has been
surrounded by a metal network of scaffolding. In order for it to shine
in its full glory, in the summer of 1997, ninety-year-old tin clocks
destroyed by corrosion were removed from the tower and replaced. All
eight new watches were cast in bronze in the Kranjčević family foundry
in Markuševac, at the foot of Sljemen. Each clock has a diameter of 3 m
and 20 cm, weighing about 600 kg. 8 tons of bronze and brass were used
to make the watches.
In 2008, Croatian producer Dominik Galić
produced and director Eduard Galić directed a documentary film about the
restoration of the Zagreb Cathedral.
On March 22, 2020, an earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale
brought down the top of the southern bell tower of the cathedral.
The top of the north tower of the Zagreb Cathedral, which is 13 and
a half meters high and weighs 30 tons, was removed on April 17, 2020
with a controlled explosion, because due to the damage it suffered in
the strong earthquake on March 22, there was a danger of it collapsing
and causing even greater damage cathedral and the surrounding area. The
cathedral tower was separated between the 72nd and 73rd rows, it was
removed by a 500-ton crane, and another crane covered the entire belfry
and lowered it in one piece.
The cathedral was further damaged in
the earthquake that occurred on December 29 with the epicenter near
Petrinja.
Immediately after the earthquake, employees of the
Ministry of Culture, the City Institute for the Protection of Cultural
and Natural Monuments, and the Croatian Restoration Institute began
inspecting and cataloging the damage, evacuating movable inventory, and
implementing emergency protection measures, including the removal of the
bell tower. The renovation program is divided into 21 interconnected
projects, for which the Ministry of Culture and Media secured 31 million
euros from the EU Solidarity Fund.
Matica hrvatska and the
Society of Croatian Art Historians held a round table on January 18,
2023, Zagreb Cathedral once, today and tomorrow, at the instigation of
the president of the DPUH, Dina Milinović. At the same time, the
president of Matica Hrvatska Miro Gavran pointed out:
»The Zagreb
Cathedral is the largest Croatian sacred building and the most important
monument of Croatian culture. As the most significant witness of the
moments of our history, like our people, she touched the ups and downs
and like the phoenix symbolizes beauty, but also a being that rises
again from its ashes (...) I vividly remember the lecture of my dear
professor Radovan Ivančević from forty years ago when he spoke very
critically about the restoration of our cathedral, which took place
after the devastating earthquake of 1880. I am sure that no one wants
that after ten or a hundred years, our descendants will talk about the
restoration of the cathedral as an aesthetic or construction failure."
The temporary space for daily Eucharistic celebrations, distribution
of the sacraments (regular confession), prayer and devotions (worship of
the Altar sacrament, Stations of the Cross, etc.) during the closure of
the cathedral during the renovation, on Chapter 28, was opened with the
Holy Mass of the Lord's Supper on Maundy Thursday 2022, which was
presided over by Archbishop Josip Bozanić in concelebration with
auxiliary bishops Ivan Šaško and Mija Gorski, canons of the First
Chapter and priests of the Zagreb Archdiocese.
On the feast of
St. Catherine of Siena, April 29, 2023, Msgr. Dražen Kutleša assumed the
office of Archbishop of Zagreb in the Divine Liturgy. The Bull
appointing Pope Francis was read by the Apostolic Nuncio, Msgr. Giorgio
Lingua, after which Cardinal Josip Bozanić handed over the bishop's
staff to Kutleša.
Along with the construction of the cathedral in the Middle Ages, a collection of books intended for the needs of worship, rituals and prayers was organized and supplemented, as evidenced by the oldest inventories of the cathedral from the end of the 14th century. The fund was supplemented with books of a "secular" character, medical, pedagogical and legal, related to the activity of the cathedral chapter as a legal authority and trusted place (lat. locus credibilis). With the influx of printed books from the end of the 15th century, the fund increased rapidly. However, only in the second half of the 17th century, special library rooms were arranged for Bishop Aleksandar Mikulić, attached to the western capitol rampart. At that time, the collection was enriched by the purchase of the personal book and graphic collection of the Kranj polyhistorian Janez Vajkard Valvasor. After the earthquake of 1880, the chapter's book collection (Metropolitan) was stored in the University Library, and then in the Croatian State Archives in Zagreb, while a smaller number of valuable liturgical codes and printed books remained in the Treasury of the Zagreb Cathedral.