Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/DOI: https://doi.org/10.17234/RadoviZHP.55.23
The State and the Orthodox Church – Financing the Construction, Renovation and Furnishing of Orthodox Churches in Croatia in the 19th century (Summary)
Dragan Damjanović
orcid.org/0000-0003-2589-8075
Abstract
Financing for the construction, renovation and furnishing of Orthodox churches in the territory of present-day Croatia in the 19th century was governed by a series of regulations, some of which dated back to the 18th century and were only adapted to the new political circumstances. The state authorities had no legal obligation to assist in these operations. In the territory of northern Croatia, both in civilian territory and in the Military Frontier, the patronage building duties of property owners (state or private owners) toward the church basically only applied to Catholic parishes and did not extend to Orthodox parishes. Moreover, laws related to Serb church-school autonomy in the area under the jurisdiction of the Sremski Karlovci Metropolitanate guaranteed the Orthodox Church autonomy in the field of construction, renovation and furnishing of church buildings. These interventions were led by local Church committees, that is, Church districts, in larger settlements (towns and cities), usually in the hands of the wealthiest individuals, merchants, craftsmen or industrialists. Church committees only had to obtain permission from the Diocesan Consistory; however, if they turned to the state for help, the church buildings of the Orthodox Church were supervised just like the Catholic Church and were usually designed by architects employed by the local authorities (county, district, city). Despite the absence of a legal obligation, the state did, in fact, provide assistance for interventions in Orthodox churches, especially after most of the Military Frontier was merged into Croatia in 1881, when the political importance of Serb political parties in Croatia increased in the Croatian Parliament and in the Croatian government. During the 1890s, partly due to the efforts of Iso Kršnjavi, head of the Croatian government’s Religion and Education Departments (1891-1896), the state provided particularly large sums to assist the renovation of the cathedral church in Pakrac and then, between 1900 and 1914, the remaining Orthodox cathedrals in Croatia: the cathedral churches in Plaški and Sremski Karlovci. Furthermore, generous assistance was granted to the Orthodox churches in the former Military Frontier, partly due to the existence of Military Frontier investment funds and Military Frontier property, and educational funds, which made these allocations possible, and partly due to the fact that the church districts in those areas of Croatia were the poorest and could not afford to replace older, mostly wooden buildings, with new brick-and-mortar structures.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
316291
URI
Publication date:
20.4.2024.
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