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https://doi.org/10.17018/portal.2024.10
Parish and Pilgrimage Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Čučerje: a triple-nave Baroque basilica with a dome above the sanctuary, built by Bishop Juraj Branjug
Katarina Horvat Levaj
; Institut za povijest umjetnosti
Sažetak
The parish and pilgrimage church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Čučerje was built in the 1730’s by Juraj Branjug, the bishop of Zagreb, on the site of a church mentioned in written sources in the 14th century. Despite the important historical circumstances of its construction, it has not been included in any review of Baroque architecture in Croatia. The reason for this surely lies in the fact that the church was damaged during the 1905/1906 earthquakes and lost some of its most prominent architectural features. Renovated at the beginning of the 20th century in a simplified form, it again suffered severe structural damage during the 2020 earthquake. Research carried out as part of the renovation, however, revealed important abandoned design features only partially known from written documents. Among them are clerestory windows and the dome, with a lantern, above the sanctuary. In its present form, the church is a triple-nave building with a polygonal sanctuary with a wooden barrel vault. The side aisles are separated from the central nave by arcades on wall columns divided by Tuscan columns; and, despite the great difference in height between the side aisles and the nave, it does not have clerestory windows. The descriptions in canonical visitations tell us that the church had a vault and that there was a dome with a lantern above the sanctuary, but the clerestory windows were abandoned during construction (the central nave and side aisles being covered by one roof) due to a “fault in the roof”. Probes opened during restoration revealed brickedup clerestory windows that were never in use. Because of these characteristics, the parish church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Čučerje significantly exceeds the average architecture of Baroque churches in continental Croatia. Although the dome and the original vaults have not been preserved, the mere fact that the dome existed gives the parish church in Čučerje an exceptional significance, because it is a rare occurrence in Croatia. The same can be said for the triple-nave basilica layout, which has almost no parallels in the area, and the triple nave itself is relatively rare. Although there were two medieval examples of triplenave churches in Zagreb and the surrounding area – the cathedral, and the parish church of St Mark – the layout was not widely used. In addition, the above-mentioned Zagreb churches were not basilicas, but hall churches (Hallenkirche). Therefore, even the few triple-nave Baroque churches in the area had naves of equal height. The basilica layout appears only in the Gothic parish church of the Holy Trinity in Donja Stubica (expanded by adding side aisles between 1740 and 1745, therefore after the church in Čučerje had been completed). If we take into account Baroque churches with a dome above the sanctuary, the church in Čučerje was preceded only by the Pauline votive church of Our Lady of Sorrows of Koruška, in Križevci. Its dome (1725) follows the square floor plan of the sanctuary with cut-off corners (irregular octagon), and lighting is provided through windows above the drum. Outside, the high wall of the drum includes the dome, with a curved cupola with a tall lantern. A similar dome (1744) can also be found on the Pauline church of St Jerome, in Štrigova. The domes that were later built in Zagreb on the Jesuit church of St Francis Xavier (1748–1752) and the parish church of St Mary on Dolac (1760) belong to the classic type of round domes without a drum with a lantern and constructed on pendentives. (In recent sources, both Zagreb churches are associated with the Styrian architect Joseph Hueber.) Therefore, the aforementioned chronological position of the dome on the church in Čučerje gives it a possible prototypical role, and the descriptions from the visitations suggest that it had a dome without windows illuminated through a lantern, a solution similar to Zagreb churches with identical placement of the dome above the sanctuary. Considering the information about the patron, we can conclude with great certainty that the innovative combination of the dome and the sanctuary was designed in Čučerje, and Bishop Juraj Branjug improved it on the church of St Francis Xavier in Zagreb, so that it could be used again on the church of St Mary in Zagreb. The features of the above-mentioned group of three churches differ to some extent from related churches with domes in the wider region, which are characterized by a tambour with windows, and above the crossing, not the sanctuary. In addition to the well-known patron, the question of who was the designer and builder of the peculiar church in Čučerje remains unknown, but it is obvious that the execution was not at the level of the architectural idea. And, finally, the question arises as to how to apply the results of the research on the reconstruction of the church after the 2020 earthquake. Given that all traces of the dome and vault were destroyed at the beginning of the 20th century, elements needed for their reconstruction are missing. It is therefore necessary to conserve the present state with only minor restoration of individual zones. Nevertheless, the aforementioned new findings increase the dignity of this important church on the old property of the Zagreb Diocese.
Ključne riječi
Čučerje; parish church; Baroque; Bishop Juraj Branjug; triple-nave basilica; dome above the sanctuary; reconstruction after the 1905/1906 earthquake; reconstruction after the 2020 earthquake
Hrčak ID:
325626
URI
Datum izdavanja:
19.12.2024.
Posjeta: 23 *