Celje Cathedral ( sl, celjska stolnica) is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

dedicated to the

Prophet Daniel Daniel (Aramaic and he, דָּנִיֵּאל, translit=Dānīyyēʾl, lit=God is my Judge; gr, Δανιήλ, translit=Daniḗl, translit-std=ALA-LC; ) is the main character of the Book of Daniel. According to the Hebrew Bible, Daniel was a no ...

Celje ) , pushpin_map = Slovenia , pushpin_label_position = left , pushpin_map_caption = Location of the city of Celje in Slovenia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Cou ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. It has been the episcopal seat of the diocese of Celje since the creation of the diocese in 2006.

History and description

As early as the 12th century there was a small

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

on the site. This was replaced in 1306 by the present building, which served as the church of the

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

which during the Middle Ages stood on the edge of the town. In 1379 the

rib vault A rib vault or ribbed vault is an architectural feature for covering a wide space, such as a church nave, composed of a framework of crossed or diagonal arched ribs. Variations were used in Roman architecture, Byzantine architecture, Islamic ...

ed roof was created. The church was altered several times up to the 16th century. In 1413 the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

chapel of the

Mater Dolorosa Our Lady of Sorrows ( la, Beata Maria Virgo Perdolens), Our Lady of Dolours, the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows ( la, Mater Dolorosa, link=no), and Our Lady of Piety, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are names ...

was added, which was dedicated in 1420 by the

bishop of Freising The following people were bishops, prince-bishops or archbishops of Freising or Munich and Freising in Bavaria: Bishops of Freising * St. Corbinian (724–730); founded the Benedictine abbey in Freising, although the diocese was not organ ...

, Hermann von Cilli. Here is located a carved wooden

Pietà The Pietà (; meaning "pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus after his body was removed from the cross. It is most often found in sculpture. The Pietà is a specific form o ...

, which is the main treasure of the church. The three-aisled nave has a flat roof and a separate space for the segregated use of nuns. The ceilings are decorated with frescoes of the 15th century, but those of the choir are older than those of the nave: the fragment of the figure of Christ in the middle of the choir ceiling may even date from the 14th century. Other frescoes depict the

Three Kings The biblical Magi from Middle Persian ''moɣ''(''mard'') from Old Persian ''magu-'' 'Zoroastrian clergyman' ( or ; singular: ), also referred to as the (Three) Wise Men or (Three) Kings, also the Three Magi were distinguished foreigners in the G ...

. During the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

period a brightly-decorated chapel of Saint Francis Xavier was added. The painting of the chancel is by Michael Rosenberger, an artist who restored it in 1851. In 1858 the church was given its present

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

appearance. Various gravestones from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (up to the 17th century) decorate the inside and outside walls. The 39th bishop of Freising, Hermann von Cilli, who died in Celje on 13 December 1421 after an operation, was buried in the church. His monument is now in the presbytery on the Gospel side.Mittheilungen der Kaiserl. Königl. Zentral-Kommission für Denkmalpflege in Wien, K.K. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, 1901, p. 227. After the reform of the liturgy the windows of the chapel of the Mother of God were replaced by colourful modern windows.

Notes and references

Sources and external links

slovenia.info

Netzpräsenz der Kathedrale
( Roman Catholic churches completed in 1306 14th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Slovenia Roman Catholic churches completed in 1858 Buildings and structures in Celje 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Slovenia