Professional paper

Pakra monastery iconostases

Edo Anušić ; Croatian Conservation Institute, Department for Wooden polychrome Sculpture, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

A few years ago the Croatian Conservation Institute initiated a series of preventive interventions on the wooden Orthodox inventory in a number of sacral objects in
northwestern Croatian with the aim of restoring and preserving the endangered cultural heritage. For a long time, perhaps more than necessary, but due to serious matters being at its initial phase, or being completely unknown, one can be undecided about how to write in a meaningful and useful way about the inventory undergoing a removal of centuries old cobwebs, the inventory that is yet to be touched by the healing hand of the restorer. If one browses through historical data and uses photo archives, one can only be surprised with the extent to which this segment of the Croatian cultural heritage has been neglected. The same goes for the extent to which various historical and political events had a direct or indirect impact on ignoring and delaying the beginning of its restoration. The relatively small space of the Pakra Monastery contains two iconostases. Today, they are both located in the church of The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The bigger one represents a part of the church inventory, and the smaller one, or what is left of it, was transferred from the ruined chapel of St. Nicholas and temporarily stored in the apse of the church. The article discusses the possible evaluation and future of the iconostases. As an excellent example of the construction, the carving skills, and most of all the artistic mastery of their authors – carvers and iconographers – and starting from the Baroque „transition period“ to date, they have reached different degrees of endangerment.

Keywords

Pakra Monastery; the church of The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary; St. Nicholas Cemetery Chapel; Orthodox religious inventory; iconostases

Hrčak ID:

106274

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/106274

Publication date:

20.12.2011.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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