Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/90836c71xy
The Parish Church of St. Anthony of Padua in Fužine – An Example of the Classicist Architecture in Gorski kotar
Marijan Bradanović
orcid.org/0000-0001-9518-6052
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
Ivan Topolovčan
orcid.org/0000-0002-3458-4468
; Ivanska, Croatia
Abstract
The Church of St. Anthony of Padua in Fužine is a single-nave church building
with a prominent bell tower on the front façade and a rectangular vestry situated at the
back of the building and in symmetry with the church nave. Its principal architectural
feature is a consistent sequence of domed arched ceilings executed in brick over the
two bays of the nave and over the rectangular shrine, which has not been separately
articulated in the floorplan within the perimeter of the building. Though the erection
of this church had commenced towards the end of the first decade of the 19th century,
building was terminated and the church left in foundations for a long period of time. It
was finally completed in 1833. Together with the parish church of Delnice, with which
it shares the same elements of style, the Church of St. Anthony of Padua in Fužine
is not only the most important, but also the best-preserved example of the Classicist
period in the sacral architecture of Gorski kotar. Same as in the Delnice example, the
prominent bell tower on the front façade may be interpreted as a relic of the local building
tradition. This church belongs to typologically diverse architectural realisations
created in the final phase of the yearlong leadership of the Senj and the Modruš/Krbava
Dioceses by Bishop Ivan Krstitelj Ježić. Its erection and shaping should be looked at both
in the context of the ambitions of the local community and the urban development of
Fužine, and in the context of a specific pluralism of influences, which was taking place
on the architecture of Fužine as a transit travel station. The influences were gradually
coming in from Karlovac and Ogulin as the nearby continental cultural centres, as
well as – increasingly – from several towns of the Hungarian Littoral, such as Bakar,
Kraljevica, and particularly Rijeka as a regional economic and cultural centre of growing
importance. Well-preserved architectural structures, combined with a comparative
art-historical analysis and an analysis of archival sources, have enabled reaching
wider-applicable conclusions regarding the church building and decorating tradition
in Gorski kotar.
Keywords
sacral architecture; Classicism; Fužine; Gorski kotar; Hungarian Littoral; city of Rijeka; Bishop Ivan Krstitelj Ježić; pluralism of influences.
Hrčak ID:
250200
URI
Publication date:
7.1.2021.
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