Do you know the story about Zagreb's Cathedral?
This is the story of Zagreb Cathedral, the seat of the Archdiocese of Zagreb, situated in Kaptol. It all began over 780 years ago when King Ladislav founded the Archdiocese of Zagreb, appointed the first bishop and in 1217 built a small single-nave Romanesque church. The Cathedral in Kaptol was later expanded, but was burned to the ground in the Tartar invasion of 1242. The following two bishops took no part in the reconstruction of the Cathedral, and it was not until the second half of the 13th century that Bishop Timothy built the sanctuary, the two adjoining chapels and the sacristy, and adorned the church with sacred artefacts and motifs.
The construction and decoration of the Cathedral was continued by Bishop Stephan III (Kanižaj) in the second half of the 14th century. He completed the construction of the two steeples, expanded the high naves in the Late Christian style, and constructed the sanctuary and the northern and southern adjoining Early Gothic chapels.
The church was severely damaged in the great fire at the end of the 14th century. At the beginning of the 15th century, Bishop Eberhard commissioned some of the most distinguished European master craftsmen to renovate the church in the Late Gothic style. As time went by, the Cathedral suffered further damage. It was badly damaged in a raid carried out by Count Celjski in the mid-15th century. In addition, Nikola Thurn, the commander of the Spanish auxiliary troops, destroyed both steeples in 1529. The Cathedral was subsequently reconstructed in ornate Gothic style by Bishop Osvald Thuz.
Bishop Juraj Haulik (1837-1852), who went on to become Zagreb's first Archbishop and Cardinal, introduced new 19th century Croatian-style furnishings into the Cathedral, made changes to the altar and decorated it with wood carvings, fitted numerous neo-Gothic statues in the niches, and enriched and decorated the entire sanctuary. After Juraj Haulik’s death in 1870, Archbishop J. Mihanović hired the famous architect F. Schmidt to renovate the Cathedral. Schmidt diagnosed the Cathedral as being in a very poor state. Its roof was so badly constructed that the pressure on the vaults was causing the walls to move apart, the main part of the roof’s wooden construction had rotted away and although some of it had been repaired with bricks and plaster this failed to make it any more solid.
Earlier interventions on the Cathedral included the construction of a set of transverse arches, separating the sanctuary from the naves. In addition, two chapels had been built in the lateral naves, and the sacristy expanded, but in a manner which was inconsistent with the old regular design of the interior. To make matters worse, the Cathedral was cluttered with numerous altars and objects, only a few of which had any artistic or aesthetic value.
Schmidt’s design for the Cathedral was accepted, and the renovation was entrusted to the architect Hermann Bolle, with whom Scmidt had worked in the past. Bolle finalised most of his preparations, and the renovation work on the Cathedral commenced. He set up a stonemason's workshop next to the Cathedral and transported stone from the nearby Medvednica quarry, which had been used in the construction of the old Cathedral. Unfortunately, on November 9, 1880, Zagreb was hit by an earthquake, causing serious damage to the Cathedral. All of its badly constructed parts, which were to have undergone renovation, were destroyed. The entire ceiling collapsed smashing the main altar into pieces, the arched roofs of the naves cracked, the arches caved in, the pillars bent and the entire system of transverse arches almost collapsed, which would have destroyed all the pillars, arches and vaults.
However, Bolle refused to give up. In 1884, he presented his plan for the reconstruction of the damaged Cathedral. Further renovation included the tearing down of yet another part of the old Cathedral and, in spite of everything, renovation work progressed rapidly. The stone used was now brought in mostly from Vrapče, Podsused, Markuševac and Vinica. The renovation involved more than 150 people – carpenters, masons, stonemasons, sculptors, blacksmiths and labourers. Ironically, the effects of the earthquake helped make the Cathedral’s interior an integrated whole, and the church’s inventory was reduced to a minimum – only functional furniture was retained. The church now measured 77 metres in length, and 46.60 metres in width. The inside of the Cathedral occupied 2386 square metres of space, and the steeples reached a height of 93 metres. In March 1902, the massive wooden scaffolding was removed from the Cathedral, revealing the church's breathtaking size and beauty. This splendour was enhanced by the pealing of the bells from the Cathedral’s steeples, a sound which could be heard all over the city. It was then that the Cathedral secured its place among the most beautiful church buildings in the monarchy.
If you visit Zagreb Cathedral today, the first thing you will notice is that the scaffolding has returned. But on closer inspection you will not fail see how beautiful and impressive it really is.
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