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Construction of the Church began around 1400 once the Pauline Monks had arrived in Lepoglava, and consecration took place in 1415. The Church and the Monastery were destroyed during the Turkish invasion of 1481, and reconstruction of the Church was aided by the Croatian Governor (‘Ban’) John Corvinus who was buried near the main altar in 1504. The Church is a Gothic construction updated with Baroque-style details. The interior is full of Baroque furniture, carved wood, Baroque altars and frescoes by Ivan Krstitelj Ranger. The sanctuary of the Church is dominated by a Baroque altar that dates from the 18th Century, which the work of the Pauline Aleksej Königer and the Pauline Father Klemens, who made the tabernacle. The walls and the vault of the Church feature frescoes by Ivan Ranger, while the chancel includes one of his most beautiful works that features a scene from the Book of Revelation – the Lamb on the Book of the Seven Seals. The Church also boasts an extremely valuable organ built by Pavao Ivanović.
After the Order was abolished in 1786, the Church became a Parish Church, and no further major construction works took place. Upon the departure of the Pauline Order part of the artwork was assumed by the Čazma Kaptol, a part by the State Treasury, while the other parts were transferred to Vienna, Budapest, Varaždin and Zagreb. The Church was badly damaged in the earthquake of 1880 and threatened by fire in 1943 during the Second World War, when the Monastery’s eastern wing (then a prison) was set on fire as part of a Partisan action to free prisoners. During the German retreat in 1945 the Church, the monastery’s western wing and the Guest Lodge were destroyed when an ammunition cache was set alight by the Germans. In both instances the Church was saved by Father Ferdinand Krčmar.
After the transfer of the Blessed Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac from Lepoglava to Krašić, the communist authorities closed the Church in 1952 and turned it into a prison. It was closed for almost 30 years and suffered the ravages of time, but the initial restoration work began in the 1970s under the auspices of Restoration Institute in Belgrade. Croatian independence saw extensive and thorough restoration works beginning, and since 1990 the Church has been reopened to worshippers. In 2001 the Lepoglava Prison handed the Pauline Monastery over to the Varaždin Diocese with the goal of connecting the Church and the Monastery into a single complex.
Informations:
Župni dvor – RKT župa Blažene Djevice Marije
Trg 1. hrvatskog sveučilišta 3
42250 Lepoglava
Župni dvor
Tel.: +385 (0)42 792 – 566
The Pauline Monastery has developed in parallel with the Church once their arrival in Lepoglava was made possible by Count Herman II of Celje. The Monastery shared the tumultuous fate of the Order and the Church: it was extended and remodelled several times, and the improvements that began in 1650 resulted in the three-storey building with a cloister and arcades that is still visible today and retains its most important Baroque features. Archaeological research in the courtyard has uncovered parts of the Medieval Monastery, and the restorations that have taken place over recent decades have restored the splendour of the summer and winter dining rooms, the prior’s chamber and other rooms that are representative of the Monastery where Pauline Monks not only arrived from various Croatian regions, but from across the Habsburg Monastery and even as far away as England.
The abolition of the Pauline Order in 1786 placed the Monastery under the administration of the State which used it to operate as a regional prison. It ceased to function as a prison in 2001 and the Monastery was returned to the Varaždin Diocese, which converted it into a pastoral centre. With the restoration of the Pauline Monastery Lepoglava is aiming to restore its epithet as the religious and cultural capital of North-western Croatia.
The Parish Church of St. Bartholomew the Apostle was built in 1640, in the Parish of de Kamenicza (Kamenica) which had been founded in 1334. The Church was consecrated by Benedikt Vinković, the Bishop of Zagreb, in 1641. The Church is a single-naved Baroque building which is 29 metres long and 9 metres wide, reaching a height of 10 metres. At the front of the Church there is a 32-metre-high bell tower, and the sacristy is to the right of the chancel. The Church possesses a Late-baroque-classical inventory which includes precious communion ware that dates from the 18th Century. The Main Altar and the Holy Mary’s Altar were added in 1799, and the Altar of the Holy Cross was added in 1803. Today’s Altar of St. Donat, which was originally the Altar of Holy Mary, was installed in 1786 and a statue of the Holy Mother was replaced by a statue of St. Donat in 1816.
The Altar was painted and gilded in 1819 by Franjo Faichtinger. The pulpit was installed in 1786 and the baptistery in 1816. The organ was procured from the Varaždin builder Ignac Petter in 1844. The Church’s tower was built in 1850 and gave the Church its current appearance. As the altars, pulpit and baptistery date from the same era, the Church’s layout has a harmonious style that dates from the Late-Baroque (Rococo) and Classical Period.
On the site of what is today the Kamenica Parish Church was the old Church of the All Saints, and a visitor in 1639 wrote that it had a dome, five rounded niches, one of which was the sacristy, and that it was covered in the Italian style. It was thought to be Renaissance or even Romanesque. It was demolished in 1726 and today’s sacristy was built in its place. The Gothic tower that once stood in front of the old Church was demolished in 1823.
There is also the Chapel of St. Helen (St. Mary of the Snow) which is mentioned as a wooden chapel for the canonical visit of 1666 and opened as a typical Baroque Church in 1749. Inside the Chapel the polychrome and gilded sacristy cabinet from 1752 and frescoes by Ivan Ranger in 1751 stand out.
Informations:
Župni dvor – RKT župa Sv. Bartol
Kamenica 43
42250 Lepoglava
Tel.: +385 (0)42 701 – 055
The Parish Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Višnjica was constructed between 1640 and 1666. Up to 1705 it was the Filial Chapel of the Parish of Kamenica, and in 1705 the Parish of Višnjica separated from Kamenica, whereon the Chapel became a Parish Church. The Church extended its chancelry and façade between 1722 and 1725. In 1738 the Chapel of St. Joseph was added to the Church’s western-side and a new tower was built in 1751. The eastern Chapel of St. Valentine was built in 1754 and the Church received its current appearance in 1794, when the vestibule was added. The Church possesses particularly beautiful painted frescoes which are the work coming from the Ranger’s painting workshop. These frescoes depict motifs from the Bible as well as various martyrs and saints. These frescoes were painted between 1768 and 1796.
Informations:
Župni dvor – RKT župa Pohođenja Blažene Djevice Marije
Donja Višnjica 2
42255 Donja Višnjica
Tel.: +385 (0)42 703 – 106
Atop the Jelenec Hill above Kamenica is the Chapel of our Lady of the Snows which was first recorded in 1639. In 1742 it was demolished and construction of the new Chapel began. The sacristy was the first to be completed in 1751 when it was painted by Ivan Krstitelj Ranger in what proved to be his last piece of work. On the apse of the sacristy he completed the monumental work of painting the altar’s architecture and symbols on the vault celebrating the Virgin’s role. The Chapel also features a valuable sacristy altar dating from 1751 which was the work of a Pauline master from Lepoglava. The Chapel’s organ was transferred from a nearby parish church, but it was initially purchased during the second half of the 18th Century from the deconsecrated Nunnery of St. Elizabeth in Graz.
Informations:
Župni dvor – RKT župa Sv. Bartol
Kamenica 43
42250 Lepoglava
Tel.: +385 (0)42 701 – 055
Tel.: +385 (0)42 703 – 106
The Chapel of Saint George was built in 1749. Its interior represents the pinnacle of Ranger’s creativity, and the fresco in the sacristy features a motif of Saint George slaying the dragon. Unfortunately the painting as a whole is no longer visible to visitors as it is hidden in part by the altar, but the size and quality of the illustrated dragon motif is an exceptional part of Croatia’s artistic heritage.
Certain motifs that feature in Ranger’s fresco in the Chapel of Saint George are inspired by mythological beings (one shows Flora, the Greek goddess of flowers) and they deviate from the usual repertoire of sacral themes by celebrating life, which here relates to the Feast of Saint George and the arrival of spring. The painted side altars (dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows and Saint Anthony of Padua)in the oval nave, a painted dome and triforia and the motif of a Pauline monk hearing confessions from the faithful represent the peak of the illusionist period that Ranger entered towards the end of his life (1750).
Informations:
Župni dvor – RKT župa Blažene Djevice Marije
Trg 1. hrvatskog sveučilišta 3
42250 Lepoglava
Tel.: +385 (0)42 792 – 566
Built during the 17th Century the Chapel of Saint Anne was renovated in the Baroque style in 1727 and rededicated to Saint John the Baptist. In 1731 Ranger completed the fresco in the sacristy that featured the sixteen saints from Roman martyrology – from the widely known Saint John the Evangelist, Saint John of Nepomuk and Saint John Chrysostom, to the lesser-known Saint John of Egypt, Saint John Hermit and Saint John of Matha. The sanctuary features altar architecture painted by Ranger that first introduced Baroque motifs into Croatia’s artistic heritage and marked the start of his famous work in Lepoglava. The Chapel features a pulpit from an older church in Lepoglava with an acanthus motif, one of the first examples of this motif in continental Croatia, and Baroque altars.
Informations:
Župni dvor – RKT župa Blažene Djevice Marije
Trg 1. hrvatskog sveučilišta 3
42250 Lepoglava
Tel.: +385 (0)42 792 – 566
Tourist Board of the City of Lepoglava
OIB: 77894431346
IBAN: HR5123600001102539185
Hrvatskih pavlina 7
42250 Lepoglava
Tel: +385 (0)42 494 317
Mob: +385 (0)99 733 0569
Email: [email protected]
If you’re not fluent with English, we also have some basic informations translated in Slovenian, German, Italian and Polish.
