Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.17018/portal.2015.10
The Loreto Cult in Lopatinec and a History of its Formal Designs, from the House of Nazareth to the Existing Altar of St. Mary of Loreto
Anđelko Pedišić
orcid.org/0000-0001-6884-9260
; Croatian Conservation Institute, Department for Wooden polychrome Sculpture, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The article presents archival records of the historical and artistic development of the Loreto cult in Lopatinec,
complete with recent conservation research of the main altar in the present–day parish church. The Loreto cult
in Lopatinec has seen its culmination between 1732 and 1768, when one of the most extraordinary Loreto chapels in Croatia was erected, with an altar in the form of the House of Nazareth that is somewhat puzzling today. The first chapel of St. Mary of Loreto was built in Lopatinec in 1732, adjacent to the old parish church of St. George that was first indirectly mentioned in 1501. After the old church was brought down in 1774, the chapel was expanded to become a parish church in 1779. By erecting a new altar in the church in 1790, the Loreto cult in Lopatinec gained its final form that has survived to this day, while the church was recorded with the titular of St. Mary of Loreto until 1841 when the name of its previous patron, St. George, was restored.
The present–day church is situated on the Pleškovec Hill in the village of Lopatinec in the municipality of St. George on the Hill. It is a hall church, with a rectangular layout and a square sanctuary. Adjacent to the southern wall of the sanctuary, a massive belfry was built. The front of the church is divided with four pilasters that support the triple cornice with cymas, surmounted by a blind pediment. Between the pilasters, above the main entrance to the church, there are three niches with stone statues depicting St. Sebastian, St. George, and St. Florian. The church is enclosed by a polygonal cinktor [colonnaded pathway] with a stone portal and two cylindrical corner towers. From the inner side of the cinktor walls there is a porch. In the niche above the entrance to the cinktor there stands a stone statue of St. Mary of Loreto. The church furnishings consist of the main altar of St. Mary of Loreto in the sanctuary, the altars of St. Anthony of Padua, the Holy Cross, and the Our Lady of Lourdes in the nave, the pulpit, and the organ in the choir gallery.
In the course of the 2008 protective conservation of the parish church, the church tower collapsed, together with the vault over the sanctuary and a portion of the nave, whereby the main altar suffered injuries and remained underneath the rubble, exposed to the recurring rainfall.
In the autumn of 2008, the church was cleared and portions of the main alter retrieved from the rubble, while the remaining furnishings were dismantled and evacuated. All the evacuated furnishings were subjected to preventive protection and stored in temporary depots in the municipal premises in Lopatinec and the old school in Dragoslavec, where they remained until 2010 when they were transported to the depot of the Ludbreg Conservation Centre. Conservation work on the altar got under way in June 2011 and took a year and a half to complete in the Croatian Conservation Institute workshops in Zagreb, Split, Osijek, and Ludbreg. In the course of conservation work on the main altar, which was primarily directed at fixing the mechanical injuries caused as the church collapsed, research was carried out which indicated that the altar had in the second half of the 20th century been subjected to a devastating unprofessional treatment, causing it to lose a large portion of its historical authenticity. The devastation was followed by a restoration effort motivated from a pragmatic desire to recover the lost integrity of the altar, whereby the reconstructions based on poor interpretation had become an integral part of the altar ensemble.
During the 2011 and 2012 conservation work at the Croatian Conservation Institute, portions that resulted from poor interpretation of the previous restoration were partially removed and the altar was restored to its integrity, whereby it was given a new expert and technological interpretation that now forms the basis for future analyses of its structure.
Keywords
St. George on the Hill; Lopatinec; parish church of St. George the Martyr; altar of St. Mary of Loreto; Jožef Holzinger; cultural heritage; conservation; wooden polychrome sculpture
Hrčak ID:
149927
URI
Publication date:
21.12.2015.
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