Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/mjrl3ug469
The Church of St. Nicholas in Koprivnica – Tributes to the Knowledge of History, Architecture and Cemeteries in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age
Robert Čimin
; Muzej grada Koprivnice, Koprivnica, Hrvatska
Hrvoje Petrić
; Odsjek za povijest Filozofskog fakulteta Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
St. Nicholas is an exceptionally important site in the context of the knowledge of the history of Koprivnica. It consists of three sacral buildings and a cemetery that had been in continuous use until the 18th century. The paper shows that a part of the cemetery may have started been built as early as in the 11th century (C14 date, cemetery in rows), which cannot however be linked to the construction of the Romanesque church that was more likely erected around the mid-12th century. It is currently the oldest known church in the Podravina Region or the mediaeval Upper Komarnica. It is considerably large, which indirectly indicates that the population and economic potential of the community that built it were substantial. The same occurred towards the end of the 13th century, when the Franciscans received this church (a new parish church of St. Nicholas was built on another site); they erected a new church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the early 14th century (on the site of today’s church of St. Nicholas). The construction of the Franciscan church at the beginning of the 14th century changed the orientation and position of the church towards the east moved away, and partly denied the existing cemetery. Monasterial cemetery and monastery wing were soon erected in the north. In the 16th century, with the departure of the Franciscans from Koprivnica, a new cemetery developed towards the south, and burials in the church became allowed as well. The facility had in the meantime been in use by the Protestant community for several decades. Around the mid-17th century, the parish was revived and the present church built on the foundations of the mediaeval Franciscan church.
Keywords
St. Nicholas; Koprivnica; the Middle Ages; Early Modern Age; cemetery; church.
Hrčak ID:
277724
URI
Publication date:
18.5.2022.
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