Church of the Holy Cross ( hr, Crkva svetog Križa) is a Croatian

Pre-Romanesque Pre-Romanesque art and architecture is the period in European art from either the emergence of the Merovingian kingdom in about 500 AD or from the Carolingian Renaissance in the late 8th century, to the beginning of the 11th century Romanesqu ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

originating from the 9th century in Nin.

Description

According to a theory from an art

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

Mladen Pejaković, the design has an intentionally unbalanced

elliptical Elliptical may mean: * having the shape of an ellipse, or more broadly, any oval shape ** in botany, having an elliptic leaf shape ** of aircraft wings, having an elliptical planform * characterised by ellipsis (the omission of words), or by conc ...

form designated to "follow" the position of the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

, retaining the functionality of a

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...

and

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...

. In its beginning, in the time of the Croatian principality, it was used as a royal

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

of the

duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...

nearby. The church is that of a central type, it features the

Croatian interlace The Croatian interlace or Croatian wattle, known as the or in Croatian, is a type of interlace, most characteristic for its three-ribbon pattern. It is one of the most often used patterns of pre-romanesque Croatian art. It is found on and with ...

(or simply "troplet") and a carved name of the ''župan'' of Nin "Godečaj". The church is known under the moniker of "the smallest

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 ...

in the world",http://www.arbela.hr/hr-nin.html
/ref> but it does not actually contain the seat of a

bishop of Nin This is a list of the bishops of Nin, named after the town of Nin, Croatia. The Bishopric was most likely founded in the middle of the 9th century. Fine, 1991, p. 254 Nin, Croatia Nin ( it, Nona, la, Aenona or ''Nona'') is a town in the Zadar County of Croatia, population 1,132, total municipality population 2,744 (2011). Nin was historically important as a centre of a medieval Christian Diocese of Nin. Nin was also the ...

* Church of St. Nicholas, Nin *

Architecture of Croatia The architecture of Croatia has roots in History of Croatia, a long history: the Croats have inhabited the area for fourteen centuries, but there are important remnants of earlier periods still preserved in the country. Ancient heritage Copper A ...

Church of St. Donatus The Church of St. Donatus ( hr, Crkva sv. Donata) is a church located in Zadar, Croatia. Its 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 forum (Roman), Roman ...

Church of Holy Salvation, Cetina The Church of the Holy Salvation or Holy Saviour ( hr, Crkva Sv. Spasa) was a Pre-Romanesque church in the Dalmatian Hinterland, Croatia, whose ruins are now a historic site. It is located in the small village of Cetina, near the spring of the ri ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Church Of Holy Cross Churches in Croatia 9th-century establishments in Croatia Medieval architecture Buildings and structures in Zadar County Pre-Romanesque architecture in Croatia Tourist attractions in Zadar County