The Church of Saint Anthony of Padua ( sh, Crkva svetog Ante Padovanskog, script=Latn/) is a Roman Catholic place of worship and a

national monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a spec ...

in Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is dedicated to the Franciscan friar

Anthony of Padua Anthony of Padua ( it, Antonio di Padova) or Anthony of Lisbon ( pt, António/Antônio de Lisboa; born Fernando Martins de Bulhões; 15 August 1195 – 13 June 1231) was a Portuguese people, Portuguese Catholic Church, Catholic priesthood (Cath ...

Preceding buildings

The present Church of Saint Anthony of Padua was preceded by two places of worship dedicated to the same saint and built on the same site. The former was constructed in 1853 as the first Catholic church in Sarajevo since 1697, when the church dedicated to the

Blessed Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

, in the same neighbourhood, burned down during the Sack of Sarajevo by

Prince Eugene of Savoy Prince Eugene Francis of Savoy–Carignano, (18 October 1663 – 21 April 1736) better known as Prince Eugene, was a Generalfeldmarschall, field marshal in the army of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty during the 17th a ...

. The newly built church received crosses, a canopy, an altar, a chalice and other eucharistic objects from the French empress

Eugénie de Montijo ''Doña'' María Eugenia Ignacia Agustina de Palafox y Kirkpatrick, 19th Countess of Teba, 16th Marchioness of Ardales (5 May 1826 – 11 July 1920), known as Eugénie de Montijo (), was Empress of the French from her marriage to Emperor Napo ...

in 1864. The church burned down in a great fire of Sarajevo in 1879. Another building was constructed in 1881, but it was small and humble, made almost entirely of wood and

adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...

. As the only Catholic church in the city, it was ceded by the

Bosnian Franciscans Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena (also ''Bosna Argentina''; officially la, Provincia OFM Exaltationis S. Crucis - Bosna Argentina) is a province of the Franciscan order of the Catholic Church in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Their headquarters ...

to the first

Archbishop of Vrhbosna The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Vrhbosna (also known as the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Sarajevo) is an ecclesiastical archdiocese of the Catholic Church. Its territorial remit includes the eastern parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the entiret ...

Josip Štadler Josip Stadler (24 January 1843 – 8 December 1918) was a Roman Catholic priest, the first Archbishop of Vrhbosna, the founder of the religious order of the Servants of the Infant Jesus ( hr, Služavke Maloga Isusa), and one of the main ins ...

, who used it as his residence from 1881 until the consecration of the

Sacred Heart Cathedral Sacred Heart Cathedral may refer to: Africa *Sacred Heart Cathedral, Moundou, Chad *Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bamako, Mali *Sacred Heart Cathedral, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo *Sacred Heart Cathedral, Freetown, Sierra Leone *Sacred Heart Cathedra ...

in 1889. The old church was returned to the Franciscan friars. It was not, however, built to endure for long. By 1905, it had deteriorated to the point where it had to be closed.

Architecture and art

The demolition of the old church took place in 1912. A new building, an example of Gothic Revival architecture, was designed by

Josip Vancaš Josip Vancaš (22 March 1859 – 15 December 1932) was an Austro-Hungarian and Yugoslav architect who spent most of his career in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo, where he designed over two hundred buildings. He also designed important buildings in p ...

and erected in its place by the end of the same year. The tower took two more years, however, and the church was not consecrated until September 1914. The present interior of the church dates from the 1960s. Featuring works of the sculptors Frano Kršinić and

Iva Despić-Simonović Ivana "Iva" Despić (; sr-cyr, Ивана "Ива" Деспић, ; 15 August 1891 – 12 July 1961) was a Yugoslav sculptor. Born in Croatia, Despić-Simonović was educated in Zagreb, Paris and Munich. From 1920 until her death she lived most ...

, and painters Gabrijel Jurkić, Đuro Seder, Ivan Meštrović

Edo Murtić Edo Murtić (4 May 1921 – 2 January 2005) was a painter from Croatia, best known for his lyrical abstraction and abstract expressionism style. He worked in a variety of media, including oil painting, gouache, graphic design, ceramics, mosaics ...

, Nada Pivac, and

Oton Gliha Oton Gliha (Črnomelj, 21 May 1914 - Zagreb, 19 July 1999) was a Croatian artist, born in Slovenia. A graduate of the Academy of fine Arts in Zagreb, Gliha continued his studies in Paris, Vienna and Munich. He is best known for his series of abstr ...

, among others, the Church of Saint Anthony of Padua is one of artistically most important churches in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The adjacent monastery, built in 1894, houses the main archive of the Franciscan Province of Bosna Srebrena. The church survived the shelling during the 1992–1996 Siege of Sarajevo remarkably unscathed, with significant damage being done only to the façade and the stained glass windows. The restoration was completed in the autumn of 2006.

Present status

While the monastery church is not presently a parish church, it is significant as a shrine of Saint Anthony. Unique among the numerous churches in Sarajevo, the Church of Saint Anthony of Padua claims to be the "church of all Sarajevans", boasting regular

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

and Eastern Orthodox attendees. The Church of Saint Anthony of Padua, along with the adjoining Franciscan monastery, is a

of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Gallery

06Sarajevo Antoniuskirche5.jpg, A

depiction Depiction is reference conveyed through pictures. A picture refers to its object through a non-linguistic two-dimensional scheme, and is distinct from writing or notation. A depictive two-dimensional scheme is called a picture plane and may be cons ...

of the Last Supper Saint Anthony of Padua's Church in Sarajevo.jpg, Front view of the exterior

References

External links