Original scientific paper

The Kalnik Piedmont Group of Fortified Churches

Zdenko Balog ; Pučko otvoreno učilište u Križevcima

Abstract

The Kalnik Piedmont group of fortified churches counting some ten buildings within a relatively small area is a unique asset to the local landscape and a living witness of the fatal 16 century and the centennial struggle with the Ottoman Turks when Croatia was reduced to the "reliquiae reliquiarum." As improvised refuges churches were provided with towers with loopholes which could resist, when needed, smaller detachments of Turkish army and of their "Vlah" allies. The territory of the Kalnik archidiaconate had been since times immemorial a well populated and rich area, as testified by the medieval history of its parishes, but due to the centennial warfare it was devastated and deserted, and it has not recovered ever since. Yet, this area reduced to ashes but never conquered avoided an even worse fate thanks to the fortified churches, a phenomenon well-known in the Christian architecture of the West.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

166728

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/166728

Publication date:

15.12.2003.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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