Top Historic Sights in Piran, Slovenia
Explore the historic highlights of Piran
Church of Snowy Mary
The Church of Snowy Mary was first mentioned in the year 1404. A rich lady from Piran donated the money for its construction. A Baroque altar from the 17th century decorates the presbytery. There are many paintings on the walls, in wooden and fretted frames, made in the year 1666 by B. Marangoni from Mantova. On the east side, above the entrance, there is the main painting from the second half of the 17th century portray ...Church of Our Lady of Consolation
The Church of Our Lady was initially dedicated to St. Michael. Its original form dates from the year 1439, and in the 17th century it was restored. Hence its exterior and interior are significantly baroque. Next to the central altar from the 18th century, there is a painting of Mary with the Child. The church is richly decorated with four paintings representing the stages in the life of St. Augustine. They were initially ...Minorite Monastery Church
St. Francis Church is situated next to the Franciscan monastery. In front of it there is a small square, formerly used as a cemetery. The construction of the church and the monastery reaches back to the year 1301. Despite many restorations, traces of the period in which the church was built can still be seen in the presbytery. The present interior dates from the 17th century and the exterior from the 19th century. The le ...St. George's Cathedral
Above the compact Piran town centre reigns St. George"s Cathedral, which gives the city its special character. It was probably built in the 12th century, but no exact data in this regard exists. In the 14th century, it was built to its present size. In the year 1344, on the Day of St. George, the cathedral was consecrated by nine bishops from near and far. It acquired its present appearance after Baroque renovation ...St. Stephen's Church
St. Stephen"s church is one of the oldest in Piran, and in the 13th and 14th centuries it was also one of the most important sacral buildings in the town. The seat of the order of the Brotherhood of a Happy Last Hour used to be in the church, where they prayed and kept relics in the main hall and in the attic. Inside the church there are statues of the St. Stephen and St. Lawrence, as well as paintings by Jakob and ...St. Clement's Church
St. Clement church was first mentioned in the 13th century. It acquired its present-day appearance after numerous renovations in the year 1773 and extensive restoration in the year 1890. It was dedicated to one of the first Roman popes – St. Clement. Because of the dreaded plague that propagated throughout Istria in the 17th century, the church was renamed Our Lady of Health Church, as St. Mary was, together with S ...Piran Town Walls
Significant parts of the city walls of Piran remain well-preserved. Piran"s three walls were built in response to the city"s expansion. The first wall was built in the 7th century, separating the town into four streets. The first wall can be seen in the old part of the town. The wall was moved south-west when new streets were built. The fortification wall, which was built along the southern coast of the town, ha ...Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings
Historic Site of the week
Kalozha Church
The Kalozha church of Saints Boris and Gleb is the oldest extant structure in Hrodna. It is the only surviving monument of ancient Black Ruthenian architecture, distinguished from other Orthodox churches by prolific use of polychrome faceted stones of blue, green or red tint which could be arranged to form crosses or other figures on the wall.
The church is a cross-domed building supported by six circular pillars. The outside is articulated with projecting pilasters, which have rounded corners, as does the building itself. The ante-nave contains the choir loft, accessed by a narrow gradatory in the western wall. Two other stairs were discovered in the walls of the side apses; their purpose is not clear. The floor is lined with ceramic tiles forming decorative patterns. The interior was lined with innumerable built-in pitchers, which usually serve in Eastern Orthodox churches as resonators but in this case were scored to produce decorative effects. For this reason, the central nave has never been painted.
The church was built before 1183 and survived intact, depicted in the 1840s by Michał Kulesza, until 1853, when the south wall collapsed, due to its perilous location on the high bank of the Neman. During restoration works, some fragments of 12th-century frescoes were discovered in the apses. Remains of four other churches in the same style, decorated with pitchers and coloured stones instead of frescoes, were discovered in Hrodna and Vaŭkavysk. They all date back to the turn of the 13th century, as do remains of the first stone palace in the Old Hrodna Castle.
In 2004, the church was included in the Tentative List of UNESCO"s World Heritage Sites.