Franciscan Monastery & Church of St. John the Baptist

Church of St. John the Baptist in Kloštar Ivanić is a late Gothic (stone) structure built in 1508 and it belongs to the largest of the Gothic churches in northern Croatia. The single nave church hall, with its extended sanctuary ends in a polygonal apse, with ornaments of fauna. The massive bell tower rises at the southern end of the sanctuary and is the junction between the church and the monastery. The tower is constructed of brick, while all the remaining structures and decorative elements are stone. The entire church had a cross-ribbed vault ending in a star in the apse. The façade is simple, and above the semicircular profiled portal (Renaissance) is the crest of Bishop Luka Barentin, builder of the church. The bell tower dates back to the 16th century, but its characteristics disappeared with the Baroque adaptations in the 17th and 18th centuries. During the period of the Turkish attacks, the church was torched. Restoration on the torched church began in 1677, when the vault was rebuilt, however in the Baroque variation, the vault was barrel shaped with side vaults. The façade is richly ornamented. In 1745, the crypt is built under the sanctuary, and the old altars are replaced, with the exception of the main altar from 1703 and the altar of the Holy Cross under the choir. The new altars are: the Mother of God of the Holy Rosary, 14 Assistants, St. Francis and St. Anthony. In World War II, the church was shelled and for a long period thereafter neglected. In the late 1980s began the restoration and preservation of the church, and it still continues. The inventory is from the 17th and 18th century, among which are the main altar, and the four side-altars from the 18th century, created by the Zagreb sculptor Josip Weinacht. Virtually all the paintings and sculptures were preserved and are stored in the picture gallery, and the vaults of the new Franciscan Monastery and the Parish Church in Kloštar Ivanić, which was opened in 1994. The part of the inventory which yet remains to be restored is kept in the monastery storage.

The construction of the old Franciscan Monastery began in the early 16th century, and was completed in 1748. The construction passed through several phases, all of which left their trace on the monastery. The old Bishop’s Residence, which previously had stood on the location of the monastery was included into the monastery structure.

Fearing the Turks, the Franciscans left the monastery in 1544 and returned again in 1639. Through that time, the monastery served as a base for the Vojna Krajina military district. In 1997, the Franciscans moved to the new monastery built alongside the Parish Church of St. Mary, and handed the old monastery over to the Carmelite Nuns, who there founded the Carmelite Order of Little St. Teresa.

References:

• Visit Zagreb County

Address

Trg Sv. Ivana 10, Kloštar Ivanić, Croatia

Details

Founded: 1508
Category: Religious sites in Croatia