Cathedrals in Croatia

Cathedral of Saint Domnius

The Cathedral of Saint Domnius in Split is formed from an Imperial Roman mausoleum, with a bell tower; strictly the church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and the bell tower to Saint Domnius. Together they form the Cathedral of St. Domnius. The cathedral was consecrated at the turn of the 7th century AD, is regarded as the oldest Catholic cathedral in the world that remains in use in its original structure, without near- ...
Founded: 7th century AD | Location: Split, Croatia

Dubrovnik Cathedral

Dubrovnik cathedral was built on the site of several former cathedrals, including 7th, 10th and 11th century buildings, and their 12th century successor in the Romanesque style. The money to build the basilica was partially contributed by the English king Richard the Lion Heart, as a votive for having survived a shipwreck near the island of Lokrum in 1192 on his return from the Third Crusade. This building was larg ...
Founded: 1673-1713 | Location: Dubrovnik, Croatia

Trogir Cathedral

The Cathedral of St. Lawrence serves now as the most imposing monument in the city of Trogir. It is part of the historic core of Trogir, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The cathedral was built on the foundations of an Early Christian cathedral destroyed in the 12th century during the sack of the town by the Saracens in 1123. The building of the cathedral began in 1213 and finished during the 17th century. Like the ...
Founded: 1213 | Location: Trogir, Croatia

Zadar Cathedral

The Cathedral of St. Anastasia is the largest church in all of Dalmatia. The church"s origins date back to a Christian basilica built in the 4th and 5th centuries, while much of the currently standing three-nave building was constructed in the Romanesque style during the 12th and 13th centuries. The site has been submitted to UNESCO"s Tentative List of World Heritage Sites. History The first known bishop in Za ...
Founded: 12th century | Location: Zadar, Croatia

Zagreb Greek Catholic Co-cathedral

Greek Catholic Co-cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius is located in the Street of St. Cyril and Methodius on the Upper Town in Zagreb. Greek Catholic church and seminary (built in 1681) existed on the Upper Town before the 17th century. This Church was intended for the Greek Catholic believers, mostly people from Žumberak Mountains, Uskoks and clerics that lived in and around Zagreb. It is not possible to determine ...
Founded: 1886 | Location: Zagreb, Croatia

Korcula Cathedral

St. Mark’s Cathedral is probably the most important building in the Korcula Old Town. It is built in Gothic-Renaissance style, completed in the 15th century at the place of other church from 13th century. It was built by local masters and craftsman of stone masonry, very well known in renaissance and baroque Dubrovnik and Venice. Most famous among them was stone mason Marko Andijic who completed the cathedral’s ...
Founded: 15th century | Location: Korčula, Croatia

Sibenik Cathedral

The Cathedral of St. James in Šibenik is a triple-nave basilica with three apses and a dome. It is the most important architectural monument of the Renaissance in the entire country. Since 2000, the cathedral has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The building of the church was initiated in 1402, though plans on its construction had already begun in 1298, when Šibenik became a municipality. The actual work to tran ...
Founded: 1402 | Location: Šibenik, Croatia

Zagreb Cathedral

The Zagreb Cathedral is the tallest building in Croatia. It is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary and to kings Saint Stephen and Saint Ladislaus. The cathedral is typically Gothic, as is its sacristy, which is of great architectural value. Its prominent spires are considered to be landmarks as they are visible from most parts of the city. In 1093 when King Ladislaus (1040-1095) moved the bishop"s chair from Sisa ...
Founded: 11th century | Location: Zagreb, Croatia

Hvar Cathedral

The most impressive building in Hvar is definitely the Cathedral of St. Stephen, standing on the eastern side of the city square, at the far end of the Pjaca, where two parts of the city meet. It was built on the site of an early 6th-century Christian church and a later Benedictine convent of St Mary. The shrine of today"s cathedral is the remains of a Gothic church from the 14th century. Its 15th-century pulp ...
Founded: 14th century | Location: Hvar, Croatia

Zagreb Orthodox Cathedral

Zagreb Orthodox Cathedral was built in 1865–66 according to designs of architect Franjo Klein. It is ecclessiastically part of the Metropolitanate of Zagreb and Ljubljana and its cathedral.
Founded: 1866 | Location: Zagreb, Croatia

Krk Cathedral

The Krk Cathedral was built originally in the 5th or 6th century but archeological evidence suggests that the site was used by Christians as early as 4th century. The cathedral is located beneath the Krk town hill. The first documented mention of the church dates from 1186. It is a three-nave early Christian basilica which is part of a larger complex, along with the Romanesque Church of Saint Quirinus (12th century), a b ...
Founded: 12th century | Location: Krk, Croatia

Pula Cathedral

The Pula Cathedral is located on the south side of the Pula bay at the foot of the hill with the 17th century Venetian fort. The site of the present-day church has been used for religious worship since ancient Roman times and the first Christian churches on the site were built in the late 4th and early 5th century AD. These had gone through a series of enlargements and reconstructions over the ages. It is believed th ...
Founded: 5th century AD | Location: Pula, Croatia

Varazdin Cathedral

Originally a Paulist Church, Varaždin church of Assumption of Mary into Heaven became a Cathedral of the newly established Diocese of Varaždin in 1997. The whole complex was built in the 17th century. The architect of the Church was George Matot, and was constructed between 1642 and 1656, when it was consecrated. A bell tower with a distinctive bulb was completed twenty years after the church. The current appearance of ...
Founded: 1642-1656 | Location: Varaždin, Croatia

Osijek Co-cathedral

The Church of St Peter and St Paul, the co-cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Đakovo-Osijek, is a neo-Gothic sacral structure located in Osijek. The multi-tiered 90-metre spire is one of the city"s landmarks. The church was built in 1898 on the initiative of the Bishop of Đakovo Josip Juraj Strossmayer. The church is entered via a small door to the right of the main portal, overlooked by a trio of gar ...
Founded: 1898 | Location: Osijek, Croatia

St. Vitus Cathedral

The St. Vitus Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Rijeka. In the Middle Ages, the Church of St. Vitus was a small and one-sided, romanesque church dedicated to the patron saint and protector of Rijeka. It had a semi-circular apse behind the altar, and covered porch. With the arrival of the Jesuits in Rijeka, the Cathedral as we see it today was founded in 1638. First, it became the Jesuits" church. When the to ...
Founded: 1638 | Location: Rijeka, Croatia

Co-Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary

The Co-Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary was built in 1169 as a Romanesque basilica of a single nave on the foundations of a pagan temple of the fourth and fifth centuries, whose remains are still visible at the back of the sanctuary at about 1.5 meters deep. The façade and the south side of the cathedral, in the middle of the eighteenth century was decorated with Romanesque arches and brick niches. In the same perio ...
Founded: 1169 | Location: Senj, Croatia

Dakovo Cathedral

The Đakovo Cathedral or Cathedral basilica of St. Peter is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Đakovo-Osijek. Đakovo Cathedral is the biggest sacral newly built building of Croatian historicism. The St. Peter Cathedral in Đakovo is the town"s most famous landmark and the most important sacral object. The cathedral was built 1866-1882 under Josip Juraj Strossmayer, who was the bishop of the Cath ...
Founded: 1866-1882 | Location: Đakovo, Croatia

Sisak Cathedral

Sisak Cathedral was built in the 18th century and dedicated in 1765. The spire was built in 1760. After an earthquake in 1909, the old Baroque facade was replaced with a Neoclassical facade, with details in the Art Nouveau style. The church was also damaged during the Croatian War of Independence. On 5 December 2009 Pope Benedict XVI established the Diocese of Sisak. As a result, the parish church became a cathed ...
Founded: 1765 | Location: Sisak, Croatia

Pozega Cathedral

Saint Teresa of Ávila Cathedral in Požega is a beautiful example of Baroque architecture. The cathedral building was funded by Franjo Thauszy, Zagreb bishop, with 80,000 forints that were originally intended for repairs of the Požega fortress, owned by bishop Thauszy at the time. The project was endorsed by empress Maria Theresa in 1754 and building started in 1756. The construction took seven years and bishop Thauszy ...
Founded: 1756-1763 | Location: Požega, Croatia

Co-Cathedral of the Holy Cross

The Co-Cathedral of the Holy Cross is the co-cathedral of the Diocese of Bjelovar-Križevci. The church is mentioned in written sources as early as 1232. The church was rebuilt over the centuries. In its initial stage is the portal of the 14th century and the present appearance in the Gothic style of the 15th century. Are noticeable late, Renaissance Gothic in the belfry and facade of the sixteenth century and Baroque sty ...
Founded: 13th century | Location: Križevci, Croatia

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Historic Site of the week

Château de Foix

The Château de Foix dominates the town of Foix. An important tourist site, it is known as a centre of the Cathars. Built on an older 7th-century fortification, the castle is known from 987. In 1002, it was mentioned in the will of Roger I, Count of Carcassonne, who bequeathed the fortress to his youngest child, Bernard. In effect, the family ruling over the region were installed here which allowed them to control access to the upper Ariège valley and to keep surveillance from this strategic point over the lower land, protected behind impregnable walls.

In 1034, the castle became capital of the County of Foix and played a decisive role in medieval military history. During the two following centuries, the castle was home to Counts with shining personalities who became the soul of the Occitan resistance during the crusade against the Albigensians. The county became a privileged refuge for persecuted Cathars.

The castle, often besieged (notably by Simon de Montfort in 1211 and 1212), resisted assault and was only taken once, in 1486, thanks to treachery during the war between two branches of the Foix family.

From the 14th century, the Counts of Foix spent less and less time in the uncomfortable castle, preferring the Governors' Palace. From 1479, the Counts of Foix became Kings of Navarre and the last of them, made Henri IV of France, annexed his Pyrrenean lands to France.

As seat of the Governor of the Foix region from the 15th century, the castle continued to ensure the defence of the area, notably during the Wars of Religion. Alone of all the castles in the region, it was exempted from the destruction orders of Richelieu (1632-1638).

Until the Revolution, the fortress remained a garrison. Its life was brightened with grand receptions for its governors, including the Count of Tréville, captain of musketeers under Louis XIII and Marshal Philippe Henri de Ségur, one of Louis XVI's ministers. The Round Tower, built in the 15th century, is the most recent, the two square towers having been built before the 11th century. They served as a political and civil prison for four centuries until 1862.

Since 1930, the castle has housed the collections of the Ariège départemental museum. Sections on prehistory, Gallo-Roman and mediaeval archaeology tell the history of Ariège from ancient times. Currently, the museum is rearranging exhibits to concentrate on the history of the castle site so as to recreate the life of Foix at the time of the Counts.