Review article
https://doi.org/10.17018/portal.2016.11
Franciscan Monastery Complex in Varaždin – a Historical Study
Marija Mirković
Abstract
Archive of the Conservation Department in Varaždin holds extensive documentation about the cultural heritage of the town of Varaždin. Inside the file related to the Franciscan Monastery and the Church of St. John the Baptist I discovered an unpublished text by Marija Mirković on the history and development of the Varaždin Franciscan Monastery and Church. In the course of conservation work on the church and monastery I consulted the text many times for useful insights disclosed in Mirković’s research. Given that the text is unpublished, it was unavailable even to the professional public. Therefore, in collaboration with colleagues from the Croatian Conservation Institute, I have initiated a digitalization of the manuscript, to be published in Portal. While reading it and consulting the data one must consider that the text was written in 1993 and should be read as a document of its time and a result of Mirković’s research during that period.
(Ivana Peškan)
The present-day Franciscan Monastery came into existence gradually, having been built continually over the course time upon an earlier-standing core. Thus, it is possible to claim that from its very foundation the church stood – as it still does – adjacent to the south edge of the plot, with the sanctuary facing east. To the north there stood a monastery that was replaced in the 17th century with the present-day building. Outbuildings and other facilities (including the infirmary building with the pharmacy) were located in the west portion of the plot (parallel to the xenodochium). The remaining space north and east of the monastery was occupied by the garden.
This way all the functions of the complex were strictly designated and separated from one another. Next to the enlarged square, suitable for larger gatherings of the congregation, there stood and still does the church proper – the centre of pastoral activity. The sacristy and the library above it were part of the monastery building whose three wings enclose the inner courtyard, a square space north of the church. Infirmaria (the infirmary for Franciscan brothers) with the pharmacy was located in the west wing that stood separate but was connected to the monastery and had a carriage entrance from Uršulinska St. During the
Baroque period it was open to the public, thus making the monastery a part of town life with its pharmaceutical and not only its pastoral activities.
Gradual but harmonious development of the Franciscan Monastery, where furnishings of varied quality still made up a harmonious ensemble, and where each new solution
respected an existing one, reached in the Varaždin church a fullness that was to last as long as, aside from the artistic component, a prominence was given to the theological one as well. The undoing of the original Baroque concept took place relatively late, but its iconological basis nevertheless remains clearly discernible. This fact implies the necessity of care for this – the most complete Baroque architectural ensemble in Varaždin; a care that must take on several forms at the same time.
Keywords
Varaždin; Franciscans; monastery; St. John the Baptist; Baroque; Ivan Krstitelj Ranger
Hrčak ID:
171698
URI
Publication date:
28.12.2016.
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