Osječki zbornik, Vol. Vol. 28 No. xx, 2007.
Original scientific paper
The Chapel of Saint Nicholas in Osijek - architecture of Julius Hermann
Dragan Damjanović
; Filozofski fakultet Zagreb. Odsjek za povijest umjetnosti
Abstract
Rivalry among numerous faith communities, namely Catholic, Orthodox, Judaic, Evangelistic and Calvinist, that lived and worked in Osijek in the second half of the 19th century resulted in a bigger number of churches erected here than in any other town in Croatia. This competition was based not only on the number of churches but also on their splendour. Therefore, it should not be surprising that the Orthodox chapel of Saint Nicholas built in 1892 at the cemetery in Donji Grad (Down Town) in Osijek is one of the most interesting sacred buildings of this type in the historicist period in Croatia. It was built as a tomb for the Kostic brothers, Dorde and Stevan, rich merchants from Donji Grad. It is a chapel with a dome designed by Julius Hermann, a civil engineer from Osijek. Its structure is a combination of Renaissance and Romanesque forms which were, in those times, taken to represent Byzantine architecture.
It was common practice in Orthodox Church building to use various elements of western European architectural styles since there was not enough information about medieval Byzantine architecture, which can be seen in
buildings designed by Theophil Hansen in Vienna, Vasyl Nahirnyij and other architects in Galicia and Herman Bolle and Janko Holjac in Croatia. The interior of the chapel is grandiosely executed. Every wall and vault is covered with decorative wall paintings with several sections having figurative scenes (the Evangelists on the pendentives and Serbian saints on the tambour of the dome). The iconostasis was made around 1900 and it was a work of a very productive Serbian painter, Stevo Teodorovic who received artistic training in Vienna and Munich, in the Biedermeier - Nazarene circle which is evident from the Osijek iconostasis. From seven original icons, only five have been preserved. Two central ones, on the so called Royal Door, showing the Annunciation, were lost in the latest war in Croatia. Alongside the saints shown individually on the lower part of the iconostasis (Jesus, the Virgin Maty, St. John the Baptist and St. Nicholas), the upper part, above the Royal Door, carries the composition of the Last Supper, undoubtedly the best work on the iconostasis. Carvings on the screen are also executed well.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
160561
URI
Publication date:
5.12.2007.
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