Church of St. Spyridon (Petrinja)
The Church of St. Spyridon the Miracle Worker ( Serbian : Црква Светог Спиридона Чудотворца, Crkva Svete Svetog Spiridona Čudotvorca) is a Serbian Orthodox church under construction in the Croatian city of Petrinja . The church is dedicated to St. Spyridon the miracle worker .
The first church was built and consecrated in 1785. During the Second World War (1939-1945) the church was destroyed by the Ustaša . The church was rebuilt in 1976, but destroyed in the Croatian War in 1991. In 1994, during the war, the construction of a third church began; this construction was discontinued in 1995 and in 1997 the church walls were removed. The fourth church has been built at the old location since 2019.
It is the parish church of the Petrinja parish in the Glina deanery of the Upper Karlovac Eparchy of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The parish of Petrinja has 55 settlements and the current parish priest is Archpriest Saša Umićević.
location
The church will be built on its old location on the eastern part of the Trg hrvatskih branitelja (Croatian Defenders' Square) of the central Croatian town of Petrinja near the Roman Catholic Church of St. Lawrence in the city center.
history
First Spyridon Church
In 1768 there were only six Orthodox households in Petrinja. During 1785 at least 89 Serbs helped build the church. The church was built and completed in 1785 in the Baroque style. In the same year it was inaugurated by the Bishop of the Eparchy of Upper Karlovac Jovan (Jovanović) . The iconostasis and its icons were painted or carved in 1815 by the painter Mihajlo Popović from Oravice , and the frescoes were painted by Dragutin Medenjak .
The church was demolished in 1941 on the orders of the Croatian - fascist Ustaša by the company of the bricklayer entrepreneur Cvetnić from Župić . The demolition lasted a long time until the end of the year. The valuable iconostasis was destroyed and all church treasures and inventory were either stolen or destroyed.
In addition to the Church of St. Spyridon, there is also the Serbian Orthodox cemetery church of St. Nicholas, built in 1878, which was also badly damaged by the Ustaša in 1941, the rebuilt church was heavily damaged by the Croats from 1991 to 1993 with grenade projectiles and Gun cartridges damaged.
Second Spyridon Church
After a few decades without a building permit in what is now socialist Yugoslavia , the second church was rebuilt about 50 m from the location of the old church in 1976 . On August 12, 1991, in the initial phase of the Croatian War , the church, built in 1976, was one of the first churches in the Upper Karlovac eparchy to be deliberately mined and razed to the ground. The destruction of the church took place outside of a military operation.
Third Sypyridon Church
Since Petrinja was to come under the control of the Krajina Serbs in the following years , the construction of a third church began on the ruins of the church. In 1994 the foundations of the third Church of St. Spyridon in Petrinja were blessed.
During the war, the rectory was severely damaged several times from 1991 to 1993. In 1992, a small Serbian Orthodox chapel , also dedicated to St. Spyridon, was set up in the rectory . In 1995 this chapel was bombed by the Croatian army and the priest was seriously injured. In addition, almost all the houses and apartments of fled Serbs in and around Petrinja were looted and destroyed.
During Operation Oluja in August 1995, all Orthodox churches in the Petrinja, Hrvatska Kostajnica and Hrvatska Dubica area were destroyed.
With the end of the Croatian War, construction work on the church ceased. The two meter high walls were bulldozed in 1997 on behalf of the Croatian city authorities .
The major issue is the reproduction of church property and treasures. To date, the Serbian Orthodox parish has not received anything back from the property stolen during World War II. The church also owns the site on which the Hotel Banija was built in the city center.
Fourth Spyridon Church
Since the return of a small number of the Serbian residents of Petrinja and a certain normalization of the situation, the parish has sought talks about rebuilding the church. The rather sluggish talks, with a major controversial topic being the location of the church, were initially unsuccessful. The parish has been using the small improvised chapel in the rectory for its services since 1991.
Reconstruction talks were resumed 20 years after the end of the war in 2015. And after three years of intensive discussions and the preparation of the project documentation, the city of Petrinja issued the building permit in October 2018 for the reconstruction of the church on the old site of the church that was destroyed in 1991.
And 28 years after the destruction of the third church, the foundations of the fourth church were solemnly inaugurated on October 10, 2019 by the bishop of the Eparchy of Upper Karlovac Gerasim (Popović) . The project for the church building was designed by the project office of the Serbian Orthodox Church from the Serbian capital Belgrade .
Due to the decision of the mayor of Petrinja Darinko Dumbović, a donation of 100,000 kuna , which is intended for the first phase of the church building, was transferred to the account of the parish in Petrinja.