January 9, 2008

The St. Elisabeth Cathedral in Košice

I live in a small country in the middle of Europe, in Slovakia (called sometimes Slovak Republic as well) and Košice is the place, where I was born and raised.
"The St. Elisabeth Cathedral (Slovak: Dóm sv. Alžbety, Hungarian: Szent Erzsébet-székesegyház, German: Dom der Heiligen Elisbeth) is a Gothic cathedral in Košice. It is Slovakia's biggest church.
This medieval monument was built in the High Gothic style between 1378 and 1508 in several stages on the site of a parish church that burned down in 1370.
The cathedral was often damaged by calamities and underwent numerous restorations. The most extensive restoration works took place in the years 1877-1896. During the last phase of the restoration a crypt was built under the northern nave of the cathedral. In 1906 the remains of Francis II Rákóczi and his friends from Turkey were buried there.
The present appearance of the St. Elizabeth Cathedral preserves a five - nave planning with intersection of the main and traversal naves and with polygonal presbytery. A metallic tower is placed at the point of intersection of the naves. On its southern side there is an entrance chamber with the royal oratory above it and chapels on its sides. The southern steeple, the so-called Matejova, dates from 1461 and the northern steeple with Rococo helm dating from 1775 complete the western front of the cathedral. The western portal is decorated with embossed scenes with the following biblical motifs: Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, Piety and Towel of St. Verona. The richest and artistically the most valuable is the northern portal with the embossed painting. The Last Trial executed in two rows one above the other. Also to be seen here are embossed paintings from the life of St. Elisabeth, Virgin Mary with women, St. John with soldiers. Above them there is one more painting the Crucifixion. In the middle of the northern portal there is a sculpture of St. Elizabeth. The southern portal has two entrances and forms an integral part of the whole composition according to the original design of the southern entrance chamber.
The interior of the St. Elizabeth Cathedral is very imposing and valuable. In this respect particular mention should be made of the main altar of St. Elizabeth, a hanged sculpture of Immaculata, the Late Gothic altar Visit of Virgin Mary, a stone epitaph of the Reiner family, a wooden sculpture of Virgin Mary, fragments of the wall painting The Last Trial, the side altar of St. Anton Paduansky, a wall painting The Resurrection, the bronze font, the altar painting of St. Anna Metercia, Gothic Calvary, the lantern of the king Matthew, wooden polychrome sculptures, the side altar Worship of Three Kings, Neo-Gothic stone pulpit. Valuable masterpieces and relics are preserved in the treasury."
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elisabeth_Cathedral"

The LO is for Trend Challenge at Just for the Scrap of it, hosted by Amy Sumrall. January is the month for challenge in Layering/Clustering.

Credits:
For the LO I used everything from the most fabulous kit I´ve ever seen, it was created by very talented SweetMade. The kit is called La Bodega, a tear paper was used from the La Bodega AddOn. You must have both of them, hurry up to her store at Digiscrap Boutique.
font - Bodoni MT

2 comments:

Léa said...

Hi, I'm your friend from Boo's CT. I like that histoy very much, and this church is very beautiful...

Anonymous said...

Your layout of the cathedral is gorgeous!
I enjoyed reading the history of the cathedral.