The Name of Mary Church (; ; hu, Mária Neve katolikus templom) is a
Roman Catholic parish church in
Novi Sad,
Serbia, dedicated to the feast of the
Holy Name of Mary. It is the largest church in Novi Sad, and is located in the city center on the
Trg Slobode (Liberty Square). Locals refer to it as the "''cathedral''",
even though Novi Sad belongs to the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Subotica,
whose cathedral is located in
Subotica
Subotica ( sr-cyrl, Суботица, ; hu, Szabadka) is a List of cities in Serbia, city and the administrative center of the North Bačka District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. Formerly the largest city of Vojvodina region, ...
.
History
After the 1699
Treaty of Karlowitz, Novi Sad became part of the
Habsburg monarchy
The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...
. The local Catholic parish was organized in 1702, and the original church was built in 1719 on the same location as today's church.
It was dedicated to
Mary Help of Christians in the memory of the
Holy League
Commencing in 1332 the numerous Holy Leagues were a new manifestation of the Crusading movement in the form of temporary alliances between interested Christian powers. Successful campaigns included the capture of Smyrna in 1344, at the Battle of ...
success in the
Battle of Vienna
The Battle of Vienna; pl, odsiecz wiedeńska, lit=Relief of Vienna or ''bitwa pod Wiedniem''; ota, Beç Ḳalʿası Muḥāṣarası, lit=siege of Beç; tr, İkinci Viyana Kuşatması, lit=second siege of Vienna took place at Kahlenberg Mou ...
. Later, it was renamed the Name of Mary Church. This original church was destroyed in 1742.
A new, second church was built on the same location.
Catholic
Archbishop of Kalocsa Patacsich Gábor
dedicated this new church in 1742.
This, second church, was heavily damaged in the bombing during the
Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and its bell-tower was destroyed.
It was later partially reconstructed.
In 1891, the city council made a decision to demolish the old church, and to build a new one on the same location.
Hungarian architect György Molnár designed the church in 1892 for free.
The old church was demolished the same year, and the new one started. The main construction was finished in November 1893.
The 72-meters high bell-tower with the golden cross was finished in October 1894.
Art and architecture
The church is a three-
nave building, with
neo-gothic arches. There are twenty
stained glass
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
es depicting saints and church fathers. The church has mechanical
pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...
with 24
registers.
The church has four
altars. The main one in the
apse is made of the carved wood from
Tyrol, the windows with stained glass from
Budapest and the roof tiles were made of
Zsolnay ceramics. The church has four
confessionals and a marble
baptistry
In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptismal ...
.
It is the tallest church in
Bačka region and dominates the
city center of Novi Sad.
See also
*
Religious architecture in Novi Sad
References
{{Novi Sad, state=autocollapse
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1894
19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Serbia
Churches in Novi Sad
Roman Catholic churches in Vojvodina