Original scientific paper
Historicistic Catholic Cemetery Chapel in Osijek
Dragan Damjanović
Abstract
Short summary
The article presents the three cemetery chapels erection in the second half of the 19th century: The Holy Cross Elevation at the Lower Town cemetery (1869 – 1870), St. Leopold at the Citadel (the New Town) cemetery (1870 – 1872) and the monumental crypt of the Pejačević family in Retfala (1891).
Long summary
As a result of a complex religious and national town image more numerous sacral objects were erected in Osijek than elsewhere in Croatia in the second half of the 19th century. Two sinagogues were built, the Orthodox chapel St. Nicholas, the Protestant Church, the town Catholic chapel of Our Lady of the Snow, the new monumental parish church of Sts. Peter and Paul, the largest Neogothic building of Croatian historicism and three Catholic cemetery chapels which are the theme of this text i.e. The Holy Cross Elevation at the Lower Town cemetery (1869 – 1870), St. Leopold at the Citadel (the New Town) cemetery (1870 – 1872) and the monumental crypt of the Pejačević family in Retfala (1891). The chapels at the New and Lower Town cemeteries are very similar – they are one-naved buildings of rectangular layout with a church tower on the facade. They are high quality realizations of Romanticism architecture, more accurate to say – Rundbogenstyle ( style of a round arch ). Besides the Upper Town sinagogue in Osijek and the cathedral in Đakovo, they are among the earliest historicistic buildings in the history of the sacral arcitecture in Slavonia. The Holy Cross Elevation chapel is a work of the notable Slavonian builder Felix Streim from Vukovar, educated at Vienna polytechnic school at the end of the 40’s and the beginning of the 50’s of the 19th century. A designer of St. Leopold chapel cannot be identified for the time being but we can assume that either Streim or the local builder Alois Flambach from Osijek had been their designers. Both buildings have preserved a qualitative romantic interior ( altars, votive paintings) and both are covered with paintings. For the time being we cannot establish the crypt designer of the Pejačević family either, what is known is only the fact that it was built by the domestic builder Gaspar (Kaspar) Klemm. We refer to the building of central, elliptic layout with cupola topped by a mansard roof. It was built in the Neobaroque style, rarely aplied in sacral architecture of the time. The inner walls are covered with stucco work. The high-quality wrought-iron railings are set on the chapel windows as well as around the crypt entrance in the interior. Since the object is not in use, its condition is poor.
Keywords
Osijek – architecture; Chapel of the Holy Cross Elevation; Chapel of St. Leopold; Chapel of the Pejačević family; Rundbogenstyle; Neo-baroque; Historicism
Hrčak ID:
9896
URI
Publication date:
25.1.2007.
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