Cathedral of Christ the Savior (Banja Luka)
The Cathedral of Christ the Savior ( Serbian Cyrillic : Саборни храм Христа Спаситеља / Saborni hram Hrista Spasitelja) is a Serbian Orthodox cathedral in the second largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina , Banja Luka . The cathedral is located in the city center not far from the town hall.
The Cathedral of Christ the Savior was rebuilt true to the original between 1993 and 2004 after the Serbian Orthodox Trinity Cathedral, which stood here before, was destroyed by the Croatian Ustaša fascists during World War II . It is the cathedral of the Banja Luka Eparchy , the Serbian Orthodox Church and is consecrated to Jesus Christ the Savior.
history
With the establishment of the metropolis of Banja Luka- Bihać and Banja Luka as the seat of the metropolitan, the desire of the Serbs there was once again aroused to replace their dilapidated old church with a new, monumental cathedral. This should be dedicated to the Holy Trinity .
For this reason, a committee was founded in 1912 to ensure that the dream of the local Serbs came true, but the outbreak of the Balkan Wars prevented construction from starting soon. The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 brought great suffering to the Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina , especially in Banja Luka.
It was not until June 13, 1921, at an extraordinary meeting of the Serbian Orthodox parish of Banja Lukas, that the question about the building of the cathedral was again officially asked and taken up. Originally, the cathedral was to be built on the site of the old Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles at today's “Kozara” cinema. At the last moment the idea was discarded. And the suggestion of the priest Dušan Mačkić was accepted to buy the building land opposite today's hotel "Balkan".
The building site was checked for the last time on September 27, 1925 when the sun was shining and this is considered to be the first day of construction of the cathedral, even if the rain in the following days meant that work could not begin until September 30, 1925. On October 5, 1925, the foundations of the cathedral were inaugurated by Vasilije (Popović), who was then Metropolitan of the Banja Luka-Bihać Metropolitan Area.
The question arose whether the monumental church could be completed in the agreed period of 600 days. In fact, the cathedral was completed before the construction deadline. During the construction work it turned out that three million dinars would be missing by the time construction was completed, and they looked for donors. The parish asked for help from the then Yugoslav King Alexander , who willingly helped. But even this was not enough and the parish sent Đorđe Bajić to America to ask the Serbs living there for donations.
The construction on the open area, next to the future town hall on Car-Dušan-Platz, was intended to represent the solid unity of the Serbian Orthodox Church with the state of that time.
The interior of the Trinity Cathedral was decorated and designed according to plans by Grigorije Samojlov. The work on the iconostasis and the beautification of the church interior was carried out by: Jovan Bijelić, Veljko Stanojević, Svetislav Stral, Jaroslav Kratina and Petar Suhačev.
The Trinity Cathedral was built between 1925 and 1929 and was ceremonially consecrated on Ascension Day (Спасовдан / Spasovdan) in 1939. The construction of the cathedral was the city's first major construction project after the First World War.
During the Second World War, when Banja Luka was bombed by the German Air Force on April 12, 1941, the cathedral was badly damaged by an airplane, especially in the apse of the altar.
After the rapid victory of the Axis Powers over the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the Independent State of Croatia , a vassal state of the Nazi regime, was founded on the territory of Croatia , Bosnia and Herzegovina and parts of Serbia ( Srem ) . The ruling Roman Catholic Ustaša under Ante Pavelić persecuted Jews , Sinti and Roma , communists, but above all Serbs and their Serbian Orthodox Church.
In May 1941 the ruined Trinity Cathedral was declared a ruin by the Ustaša government and the Serbian and Jewish population of Banja Luka was forced to demolish and demolish the cathedral stone by stone. Also in these days the Serbian Orthodox Church of St. George the Great Martyr in the Petrićevac district was destroyed.
On the orders of the Ustaša government, the Orthodox Bishop of Banja Luka, Plato (Jovanović), was arrested on May 5, 1941 and taken to the Vrbanja district , where he died a martyr .
After the end of World War II and half a century later, many of the city's destroyed historic buildings had been rebuilt, but the Holy Trinity Cathedral had not been given a building permit.
A memorial for the fallen Yugoslav partisans was erected on the former cathedral site. In the early 1990s, the Serbian Orthodox parish of Banja Luka was granted building permission. The partisan memorial was moved to the immediate vicinity of the church on the plateau of the “Bosna” hotel and is still under the administration of the Orthodox Church.
In 1992 the first preparations for the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior were made. Construction began in 1993 when the foundation was blessed. This solemn blessing of the foundation was personally celebrated by His Holiness, the Serbian Patriarch Pavle at the time , in the presence of all the important churchmen of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
The former Holy Trinity Cathedral was rededicated under the name of Christ the Savior Cathedral, because from 1963 to 1969 in communist Yugoslavia, a new church was built in Banja Luka, which was consecrated to the Holy Trinity. This new Trinity Church was to preserve the memory of the old Trinity Cathedral, as the Orthodox Serbs considered a new construction of the cathedral to be impossible.
On January 9 , 2012, on the 20th anniversary of the first preparations for the reconstruction of the cathedral and on the feast of patronage ( Slava ) of the Republika Srpska , His Holiness Patriarch Irinej personally delivered the divine liturgy.
architecture
The project for the construction of the Trinity Cathedral and today's Cathedral of Christ the Savior came from the well-known Belgrade architect Dušan Živanović (1853–1937).
The floor plan of the Trinity Cathedral is a Greek cross , with a dominant central dome in the center of the church and four smaller domes on the respective sides of the church, which are separated from the center of the church. The church tower was built on the southeast side and is connected to the cathedral by an arcade. There are entrances in the west and on the sides of the cathedral. The altar and apse traditionally face the east. The Cathedral of Christ the Savior is lavishly decorated with decorative elements outside and inside.
The cathedral is built in the traditional Serbian-Byzantine style, which dominated Serbian architecture especially from the end of the 19th century to the 30s of the 20th century. The cathedral was built from red and yellow freshwater limestone ( travertine ) from Mesopotamia. It is the first church in Europe that was built with this building material. Marble elements are also part of the decoration of the cathedral facade. The 10 columns (6 large and 4 small) inside the church are made of granite which comes from Sardinia . The bells of the cathedral come from Innsbruck , as in the case of the Trinity Cathedral and the heaviest weighs 3,200 tons.
The Cathedral of Christ the Savior was built from a three-layer wall, consisting of stone, reinforcements and concrete. The roof panels of the five domes (standing for: Christ and the four Evangelists) were made of high-quality stainless steel from Siberia and gilded with gold, similar to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia ( Bulgaria ).
The exterior and interior work on the cathedral was completed on September 26, 2004 with the first holy liturgy in over 60 years in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The first liturgy was held by eight archbishops and bishops, many hundreds of priests and deacons from all over the Banja Luka eparchy, and tens of thousands of believers. Today's Cathedral of Christ the Savior is a faithful replica of the Trinity Cathedral from before 1941 and is the tallest church in Banja Luka. On Ascension Day 2009, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was inaugurated again by Archbishop ( Eparch ) Jefrem of Banja Luka.
The cathedral has an iconostasis with icons, which is typical for Orthodox church buildings . As the work on the interior of the cathedral has not yet been fully completed, the interior is currently being painted with Byzantine frescoes .
The dimensions of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior are: 22.10 m long × 19.50 m wide. The church tower is 44 m high without the cross on it and 47 m with the cross. And the main dome, 6 m in diameter, is 22.7 m high. Inside there is space for between 800 and 1000 believers.
gallery
The iconostasis of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior
Remnants of the old Trinity Church
Christ Pantocrator , fresco
Chandelier in the cathedral
swell
- Information on the history of the cathedral on the website of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior , (Serbian)
- Information about the cathedral on the page Banjaluka.tourism , (Serbian)
Web links
Coordinates: 44 ° 46 ′ 20.1 ″ N , 17 ° 11 ′ 30.4 ″ E