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Bohus Mino (6 years ago)
Old market classic
Old market classic
Jan B (7 years ago)
The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary or commonly known as the Dominican Church is the oldest church in Košice. In the first written document from 1303 it is mentioned as an already existing church. It was built around 1290. The oldest part of the church is the Romanesque nave with narrow windows. During the Baroque reconstruction they had been broadened into the present shape. The sanctuary is built in the Gothic style as well as the tower on the northern joint of the nave with the sanctuary. The 68 metres high conical tower is the highest in Košice.
After a big fire in 1556, the damaged church served as a store-house up to the beginning of the 18th century, when it was rebuilt in the Baroque style.
The interior is richly decorated with wall paintings. The ceiling was painted in the years 1750-1758 by Štefan Voroš. The main altar illustrates the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The altar of the Rosary Virgin Mary is also to be mentioned as it is believed that the Rosary is the idea of Saint Dominic, the founder of the Dominican Order. Paintings and statues in the church represent the most famous of numerous Dominican saints: Dominic de Guzman, Catherine of Siena, Thomas Aquinas or the Dominican nun Margaret, daughter of the King Béla IV.
References:The Church of St Donatus name refers to Donatus of Zadar, who began construction on this church in the 9th century and ended it on the northeastern part of the Roman forum. It is the largest Pre-Romanesque building in Croatia.
The beginning of the building of the church was placed to the second half of the 8th century, and it is supposed to have been completed in the 9th century. The Zadar bishop and diplomat Donat (8th and 9th centuries) is credited with the building of the church. He led the representations of the Dalmatian cities to Constantinople and Charles the Great, which is why this church bears slight resemblance to Charlemagne's court chapels, especially the one in Aachen, and also to the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. It belongs to the Pre-Romanesque architectural period.
The circular church, formerly domed, is 27 m high and is characterised by simplicity and technical primitivism.