St. Martin's Concathedral
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The St. Martin's Concathedral formerly St. Martin's Cathedral (in Slovak: Konkatedrála sv. Martina formerly Dóm sv. Martina or Katedrála sv. Martina), is a concathedral of Slovakia in Slovakia's capital Bratislava. It is the biggest and finest as well as one of the oldest churches of Bratislava known especially for previously being the coronation-church of the Kingdom of Hungary.
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[edit] Location
- Situated at western border of the historical city center below Bratislava Castle
- Coordinates:
[edit] Structure and Shape
- It comprises three naves.
- Size: 69.37 m x 22.85 m x 16.02 m (L x W x H)
- The tower is 85 m high and originally it constituted a part of the medieval city's fortification.
- The shape of the cathedral symbolizes crucifix; the nave represents Christ's body, and the presbytery represents inclined head.
[edit] Construction History
- Building started at the late 13th century over the place of an older Romanesque church and the old cemetery.
- The finished church was consecrated in 1452, however the construction works continued throughout 15th and 16th century:
- a new long presbytery was built in 1461-1497
- the Gothic Chapel of Czech queen Sofia was added in 15th century
- the Gothic Chapel of St. Anna was added in the 15th century
- the Baroque Chapel of St. John the Merciful (Sv. Ján Almužník) was finished in the first half of the 18th century by Georg Rafael Donner
- The famous Baroque equestrian sculpture of St. Martin by Donner was added in 1734.
- In 1760, the top of the Gothic tower was struck by lightning, later replaced by a Baroque one, which was subsequently destroyed by fire in 1835 and reconstructed in 1847 with some modifications and topped by the crown of St. Stephen (see below).
- The church took its present-day look during the period from 1869-1877, when it was re-Gothizised after suffering damage by fire, war, earthquake and other disasters.
[edit] Coronations
The cathedral became the coronation-church of the sovereigns of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1563, succeeding The Virgin Mary Church of Székesfehérvár, once Székesfehérvár was conquered by Turks. On 8 September 1563 the St Stephan's royal crown was put on the head of Maximilian II, the son of Emperor Ferdinand I of Habsburg. In toto, the coronations of 11 kings and queens plus 9 of their consorts took place here between 1563 and 1830 including that of Maria Theresa of Austria.
[edit] Crown of St. Stephen
The tower is topped by the huge gold plated representation of the Crown of St. Stephen. It was placed in 1847 following the recovery of the damaged tower to remind the cathedral's glory and importance as a coronation-church. It weighs 300 kg, being over 1 m of diameter. It lays on a 2 x 2 m gold plated pillow. The total of 8 kg of gold was needed.
[edit] Catacombs and Sepulchers
Since the cathedral was built over an old cemetery, there are large catacombs up to 6 m below the St. Anna Chapel containing the sepulchers of many significant figures, such as ecclesiastic dignitaries, members of the Pálffi dynasty, presidents of the historic Bratislava county as well as J. I. Bajza (the author of the first Slovak novel). The last burial took place in 1895.
[edit] Current state
Today, the church is slowly falling apart, being much endangered by the vibrations caused by the heavy traffic of the nearby bridge (Nový most). However the restoration efforts started back in 1997.
