St. Peter's Parish Church (, or ) is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

Ljubljana {{Infobox settlement , name = Ljubljana , official_name = , settlement_type = Capital city , image_skyline = {{multiple image , border = infobox , perrow = 1/2/2/1 , total_widt ...

, the capital of

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

. It is one of the oldest churches in Ljubljana and is the seat of Ljubljana–St. Peter parish. It is located in the Center District, at the corner of

Trubar Street Trubar may refer to: *Trubar, Bihać, a village in Bihać municipality, Bosnia and Herzegovina *Trubar massacre, a civilian massacre committed by Chetniks on 27 July 1941 *Primož Trubar Primož Trubar or Primus Truber () (1508 – 28 June 1586) ...

(), Njegoš Street () and Zalog Street (), near

Croatian Square Croatian may refer to: *Croatia *Croatian language *Croatian people *Croatians (demonym) See also * * * Croatan (disambiguation) * Croatia (disambiguation) * Croatoan (disambiguation) * Hrvatski (disambiguation) * Hrvatsko (disambiguation) * Se ...

(). The University Medical Centre Ljubljana is situated in the immediate vicinity.

History

The original church at the site was presumably built near the

city wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or Earthworks (military), earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as ...

s already at the turn of the 9th century on the order of Paulinus II, the Patriarch of Aquilea. It was the seat of the Primitive Parish of Ljubljana. The church was encircled by a

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

that was the main town cemetery until 1779, when it was abandoned. The current building was erected in a

Baroque style The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from the early 17th century until the 1750s. It followed Renaissance art and Mannerism and preceded the Rococo (i ...

between 1730 and 1733 upon the plans of the architect Carlo Martinuzzi, who based them upon the

Church of San Giorgio Maggiore San Giorgio Maggiore (San Zorzi Mazor in Venetian) is a 16th-century Benedictine church on the island of the same name in Venice, northern Italy, designed by Andrea Palladio, and built between 1566 and 1610. The church is a basilica in the clas ...

in Venice. The model of the church was made by Giovanni Fusconi, who also gave some technical advice. The church was built by the master builder

Gregor Maček Jr. Gregor is a masculine given name. Notable people and fictional characters with the name include: * Gregor (musician) (1898–1971), Armenian bandleader * Gregor Abel (born 1949), Scottish footballer * Gregor Adlercreutz (1898–1944), Swedish equ ...

Interior division of the church has been preserved from the period. After the

Ljubljana earthquake An earthquake struck Ljubljana, the capital and largest city of Carniola, a crown land of Austria-Hungary and the capital of modern-day Slovenia, on Easter Sunday, 14 April 1895. It was the most, and the last, destructive earthquake in ...

of 1895, the church was renovated by the architect Raimund Jeblinger in a

neo-baroque Neo-Baroque may refer to: * Neo-Baroque music * Neo-Baroque painting, a painting style used by Christo Coetzee and others *Baroque Revival architecture * Neo-Baroque film *the Organ reform movement The Organ Reform Movement or ''Orgelbewegung'' ...

style. This renovation was strongly criticised for its supposed low quality, and was followed by another, done between 1938 and 1940. The façade was completely remodeled by the architect

Ivan Vurnik Ivan Vurnik (1 June 1884 – 8 April 1971) was a Slovene architect that helped found the Ljubljana School of Architecture. His early style in the 1920s is associated with the search for Slovene "National Style", inspired by Slovene folk art an ...

, while his wife Helena Vurnik contributed new interior decorations and mosaics. The church's ceiling frescoes are the work of baroque painter

Fran Jelovšek Fran may refer to: People and fictional characters * Fran (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Fran (footballer, born 1969), Francisco Javier González Pérez, Spanish football manager and former midfielder * Fran (fo ...

; altar paintings are by

Valentin Metzinger Jean-Valentin Metzinger (19 April 1699, Saint-Avold – 12 March 1759, Ljubljana) was a French-born Austrian-Slovenian painter, in the Baroque style. Life and work His ancestors were originally from Italy. He was one of twelve children born t ...

Cultural references

Until 1952, Trubar Street was known as St. Peter's Street (). The nearby

St. Peter's Bridge St. Peter's Bridge ( or , in older sources also ''Šent Peterski most'' or ''Šentpeterski most''), also Ambrož Bridge (), is a bridge in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, that crosses the river Ljubljanica in the northeastern end of the old to ...

across the

Ljubljanica The Ljubljanica (), known in the Middle Ages as the ''Leybach'', is a river in the southern part of the Ljubljana Basin in Slovenia. The capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana, lies on the river. The Ljubljanica rises south of the town of Vrhnika and ...

is named after the church. The church also gave its name to the former barracks housed at Vraz Square ().

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peter, Ljubljana Roman Catholic churches in Ljubljana Center District, Ljubljana Roman Catholic churches completed in 1733 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Slovenia Baroque architecture in Ljubljana Baroque church buildings in Slovenia