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The
Church of Sacred Heart and Mt. Krn |
The Church of Sacred
Heart in Drežnica
All the villages around
Drežnica except Jezerca had churches already in the Middle Ages.
St. George's Church, which stood in Drežnica until the beginning
of the 20th Century, was pulled down and a new church was built on
the same spot.
The construction of the
church began in 1911. It was consecrated and prepared to celebrate
mass at Christmas 1912. In spite of the war (1st World War - The
Isonzo Front), which raged around for three years, the church
remained intact.
The church is a mighty
three-naval building with a frontage and an entering staircase.
The central nave is 21 m long, and the whole church is 40 m long.
The church tower was 26 meters high at first, but it was finished
in 1986 and now it's 52 meters high.
The building has also
captured the spirit of modern benedictine architecture. It can be
observed through its dismemberment, containing three semicircular
apses on the eastern side and a smaller one near the church tower,
Romanic friezes, a church tower which is remarkably diverse, small
columns with capitals and numerous other architectural elements.
The facade is divided in
three parts by heterogeneous elements. The lower part is marked by
a powerful colonnaded entrance, composed of three arcades. The
middle part is also the biggest, including a magnificent rosette -
rose window. The upper part consists of a triangular gable with a
Romanic frieze and a tripartite window. Additional solidity and
firmness is given to the facade by two-stage pillars.
When entering the church, the visitor is overwhelmed by the
magnificence of the room. The church is divided in three naves by
mighty columns, connected with arcades. Smaller columns, leaning
on the grand ones, give the raised building a touch of medieval
Gothic cathedrals. If we look back towards the exit, we can see
the choir; the organ loft leaned on two columns with a capital.
Behind it, we can admire a mighty seven-part organ, one of the
biggest in Slovenia.
The high altar is composed of the altar table resting on four
white columns. The central part of the altar is a bit higher,
surrounded with two pairs of columns. The lateral wings contain
reliefs with two pairs of saints: the left one shows the Slavic
apostles St. Cyril and St. Metthodus; the right one shows the
announcers of faith St. Mohor and St. Fortunatus.
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The
Stations of the Cross - glass |
Ema Gallovich-Galli
portrayed apostles on the lateral walls of the main nave before
the actual painting of the church, which was performed in 1942 by
Slovene academic painters Avgust Černigoj and Zoran Mušič. The
Sacred Heart, surrounded by angels and pilgrims, is depicted on
the wall behind the high altar. The presbytery above the main arch
carries Our Lord in the middle, the Fathers Adam, Noah and Moses
on the right and the Trinity on the left. In the triangular fields
on the ceiling we can observe the well-known miracles of Jesus;
the painting on the ceiling of the main nave portrays the four
evangelists. All the pictures and images in the presbytery and
across the church are interlaced with various symbolic ornaments;
the whole radiates harmony and warmth of colours.
Glass partitions add a
special charm to the church. One of the big two-piece windows in
the presbytery shows the appearance of the Sacred Heart, and the
other one the proclamation of God. The central nave is painted
with portraits of holy women and other model wives and girls on
the right side; the left side shows the saints and models of a
father or son. The glasswork on the windows of both lateral naves
present the Stations of the Cross.
The archiepiscopal synod
Gorica proclaimed the church of the Sacred Heart a pilgrim church
in March and a basilica in October 1941.
Everyone is astonished
when seeing this mighty building rising from the hill Gorica to
the sky with its spiked bell tower. It is in accordance
beautifully with the majestic peak of Mt. Krn in the background.
St. Just's Church
in Koseč
The building from the
second half of the 14th century is one of the oldest sacral
monuments in the Upper Soča Valley. It is made of tufa. The
architecture can be placed between Romance and Gothic. It is the
most interesting case of the late-Roman architecture of
Istria-Furlania in this part of the country. The interior is
painted with frescoes, made around the year 1470 and rediscovered
in the years 1963 - 1972.
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The
altar of the St. Just's Church |
The church has the ground
plan shaped as a rectangle. The bell tower (spindle) rises above
the western wall. The bell also has a respectable age - it has the
inscription OPUS BERNARDINI FRANCHI GORITIAE MDCCXXX - 1730. The
nave is 5 m long and 4,7 m broad. A very wide presbytery is raised
by a step and separated from the nave by a pointed Gothic arch. A
pointed Gothic window is also behind the altar, on the eastern
side of the presbytery.
Each side of the window
carries a portrait of a saint; the slanted sides by the window
show four holy women. The southern wall of the presbytery shows
the birth of Christ and the northern one the death of Mary. The
frescoes along the walls of the nave show the scenes from the Old
Testament (Adam and Eve, the original sin, the exile from
paradise…) or the suffering of Christ.
The paintings carry the
influence of the Tolmezzo School of Art, dating around 1470-1480,
except the fresco ''The Judgement Day'', which was made by a
painter of another school.
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St.
Ann's Church |
St. Ann's Church
in Magozd
St. Ann's Church, dating
in the 15th century, lies below the village of Magozd. The bell
tower, rising above the western wall, was built in the 17th
century.
The Gothic presbytery
with two spiked windows takes almost half of the building. It is
separated from the naves by a spiked rocky arch, cut short on both
sides.
The church is known by a
wooden baroque altar from the 17th century, which kept some
characteristics of a golden altar. The main niche has a plastic
art of St. Ann, Mary and Jesus. There are two larger statues of
St. Nicholas on the left and St. Anthony the Hermit on the right.
The smaller niches carry the statues of St. Rock and St.
Sebastian. The altar concludes with a divided arch.
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St.
Matthias' Church |
St. Matthias' Church
in Drežniške Ravne
The church was built in
1511. It is decorated with a simple wooden altar, dating from
1885, made by Jožef Štravs from Cerkno. The oil painting,
showing St. Matthias, was probably painted by Jurij Tavčar from
Idrija. There are wooden statues on both sides - St. Andrew on the
right and an unknown saint on the left. There are also two wooden
statues in the nave - St. Peter on the left and St. Paul on the
right of the arch. The statues were restored, but damaged again
during the earthquake of 1998 along with the entire church.
The mentioned earthquake
revealed traces of frescoes from the late Gothic era. |
