Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua () is a

minor basilica Basilicas are Catholic church buildings that have a designation, conferring special privileges, given by the Pope. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectura ...

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred space, sacred place, such as a shrine, protected by ecclesiastical immunity. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This seconda ...

, Catholic parish church and

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

of the Friars Conventuals in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. It is located in the Sveti Duh ('Holy Spirit') neighbourhood of the

Črnomerec Črnomerec () is one of the city districts of Zagreb,Croatia. Original name was Črnomerec kod Pitona. It is located in the western part of the city and has nearly forty thousand inhabitants. History Archeological findings from Donja Kusto� ...

district.

History

St. Anthony

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

was established on January 1, 1932. Construction of the church started in 1931, the year of 700th anniversary of St. Anthony's death, and was finished in 1934. Church was consecrated on December 8, 1934 by archbishop Antun Bauer and Alojzije Stepinac served first

Holy Mass The Mass is the central liturgical service of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, in which bread and wine are consecrated and become the body and blood of Christ. As defined by the Church at the Council of Trent, in the Mass "the same Christ ...

inside on the same day. Stepinac consecrated main altar on September 12, 1943. Stepinac also presided over the Holy Mass on June 13, 1946, as part of the celebration of the proclamation of St. Anthony of Padua as a "teacher of the Gospel". Church's interior was completed in 1984. The church was dedicated by

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Franjo Kuharić Franjo Kuharić (15 April 1919 – 11 March 2002) was a Croatian Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Zagreb from 1970 until his resignation in 1997. Made a cardinal in 1983, he was known as the "Rock of Croatia" because of his defe ...

on November 24, 1984. The church interior was renovated in 2007. In 2008, the

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

, which was planned in the original plans, was built. Three new bells were placed in the bell tower and blessed in 2009. On the

feast of the Immaculate Conception The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception celebrates the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on 8 December, nine months before the feast of the Nativity of Mary on 8 September. It is one of the most important Marian feasts in the l ...

, December 8, 2009, Cardinal

Josip Bozanić Josip Bozanić (; born 20 March 1949) is a Croatian prelate of the Catholic Church who was the Archbishop of Zagreb from 1997 to 2023. He was previously Bishop of Krk from 1989 to 1997. He was made a cardinal in 2003. Bozanić is the Grand Prio ...

led the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the blessing and the 25th anniversary of the consecration of the parish church. On November 24, 2017, bishop of Požega Antun Škvorčević blessed the altar

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

of St. Anthony with the Child Jesus, the work of Tihomir Lončar; on the same day, at the entrance to the church, busts of the blessed Alojzije Stepinac and Cardinal Franjo Kuharić, the work of Vid Vučak, were placed on stone blocks donated from the

Zagreb Cathedral The Zagreb Cathedral (officially the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saints Stephen and Ladislav), is a Catholic cathedral in Kaptol, Zagreb. It is the second tallest building in Croatia and the most monumental sacra ...

. The church was elevated to the honor of a minor basilica by a decree of the Dicastery for Divine Worship on August 8, 2022. Cardinal Josip Bozanić handed over the Decree on the Proclamation of a Basilica (''De Titulo Basilicae Minoris'') to the Provincial, Fr. Miljenko Hontić, on September 16, 2022, and it was solemnly declared a basilica with a Eucharistic celebration on December 8 of the same year, presided over by Cardinal Josip Bozanić. By the decree of the archbishop Dražen Kutleša, basilica is one of the holy places of the

2025 Jubilee The 2025 Jubilee is a jubilee in the Catholic Church celebrated in the year 2025, announced by Pope John Paul II at the end of the 2000 Great Jubilee. This jubilee was preceded by the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy of 2015–2016. The papal bull ...

Architecture

The church was built by the design of architect Juraj Denzler. It was conceived as a three-

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

basilica monumental church, a combination of the basilica style and the modern wave in architecture. The church is over 18 meters high, 25 meters wide, and 45 meters long.

Exterior

The exterior is built of rough stone. A

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' wa ...

stands above the triple

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

doors A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide secu ...

, and on the outside of the side naves there are rows of rectangular

window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent ma ...

s. Two windows located in the presbytery on either side are decorated with

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

: the left one with St. Anthony blessing a child, and the right one with St. Anthony and the

Child Jesus The Christ Child—also known as Baby Jesus, Infant Jesus, Child Jesus, Divine Child, Divine Infant and the Holy Child—refers to Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ during his early years. The term refers to a period of life of Jesus, Jesus' l ...

in his arms. On the facade of the church, under the rose window, there is a bronze statue of St. Anthony, work by Kruno Bošnjak. The side naves are one meter lower than the central one and are separated from it by rows of columns that are 14 meters high. The sanctuary is

rectangular In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a rectilinear convex polygon or a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90 ...

in shape. The presbytery of the church is one meter higher than the nave, emphasizing the central part of the basilica. The original design was made by engineer Vladimir Potočnjak, later modified by architect Bernard Bernardi.

Interior

The gilded doors on the

tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle (), also known as the Tent of the Congregation (, also Tent of Meeting), was the portable earthly dwelling of God used by the Israelites from the Exodus until the conquest of Canaan. Moses was instru ...

were made by the sculptor Kosta Angeli Radovani. This space is covered with a

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...

- a ciborium, supported by five-meter high columns. The inner surface of the cover is decorated with a

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

of ancient Christian symbols. The benches and

confessional A confessional is a box, cabinet, booth, or stall where the priest from some Christian denominations sits to hear the confessions of a penitent's sins. It is the traditional venue for the sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church and the Luther ...

s are made of oak and were installed in the church at the end of 1941. There are 36 benches in total, according to the years of St. Anthony. The

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

s with

Christian symbols Christian symbolism is the use of symbols, including archetypes, acts, artwork or events, by Christianity. It invests objects or actions with an inner meaning expressing Christian ideas. The symbolism of the early Church was characterized by b ...

on the benches are the work of sculptor Radoje Hudoklin, who also decorated the four confessionals with reliefs. Sculptor Vladimir Radas made statues of the Crucified Christ and the Immaculate Virgin Mary. The side naves are covered with wooden coffered

drapery Drapery is a general word referring to cloths or textiles (Old French , from Late Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Late Latin ). It ma ...

5 meters high, decorated with the

Stations of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Via Dolorosa, Way of Sorrows or the , are a series of fourteen images depicting Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and acc ...

. The

Way of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows or the , are a series of fourteen images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of his crucifixion and accompanying prayers, These stations are derived from the im ...

was painted by Vasilije Jordan. In the places of the former side altars, paintings by Tihomir Lončar have been installed, which depict: the Heart of Jesus, St. Nikola Tavelić and St. Leopold Mandić with the Risen Christ, St.

Maximilian Kolbe Maximilian Maria Kolbe (born Raymund Kolbe; ; 8 January 1894 – 14 August 1941) was a Polish Roman Catholic priest, Conventual Franciscan friar, missionary, saint, martyr, and a Nazi concentration camp victim, who volunteered to die in place ...

, and the

Holy Family The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on,Ainsworth, 122 but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de La ...

. In the vestibule of the church there is a statue of Jesus under the burden of the cross, work by Juraj Škarpa, who also made two reliefs of St. Anthony, placed inside of the middle entrance.

Literature

References

External links

* {{Official website, URL=https://www.sv-antun.hr/ Basilica churches in Croatia Roman Catholic churches completed in the 1930s Churches in Zagreb