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SLOVENIA | CASTLES | CERKVE::CHURCHES | |
Church of St. Pancrasabove Stari Trg nearby Slovenj Gradec
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Church of St. Pancrus stands on Grajski Grič (530 m), north of Stari Trg near Slovenj Gradec. The name of the hill indicates that there used to be a castle on the hill. The castle above Stari Trg has been mentioned in historical sources since 1091 and is one of the oldest residential fortifications in Slovenia. On the site of the former fortified tower "bergfrida", today is the church bell tower, which is separate from the church. The former castle hall was converted into a castle chapel, which received its present-day church appearance during the Baroque period. During the Turkish invasions of Slovenian territory in the early 16th century, the church was fortified. The church is characterized by the sacred stairs on the south side of the church, which complete the Way of the Cross, which ascends from the Old Church of St. Radegunde. The vault of the "sacred stairs" is richly painted with frescoes by the Baroque painter Anton Lerchinger from the second half of the 18th century. The Church of St. Pancras includes a bell tower, built independently next to the church, a nave from the second quarter of the 13th century, a presbytery and sacristy from the Baroque period in the late 17th century, and the Holy Steps from the mid-18th century as the conclusion of the Stations of the Cross, which begins at the Church of St. Radegunda in the Old Square. The church is architecturally designed with a centrally designed nave of the hall type with a mighty column in the middle, which may have once been the castle chapel.
The castle hill (527 m) on which the present church stands was already inhabited in the Early Iron Age, as indicated by archaeological finds from before the Celtic period. In the Neolithic Age there was a hillfort here. In Roman times, life took place at the foot of the hill. Along the Roman road Celeia-Virunum there was a post station called Colatio, and after the establishment of a new market on the site of today's Slovenj Gradec, the market settlement next to it began to be called Stari trg. In ancient documents, a fortified settlement named Grez (Grad) was attested in this area in 1091, which gave its name to the entire valley, Greztal. The more precise location of the castle is not clear from the documents, although we can conclude with considerable certainty that it was on the top of the Castle Hill, if we attribute the lower part of the bell tower of the current church to the remains of the former castle defense tower. The Styrian historiographer Muchar mentions a church in this area in 1090 as St. Pankratz in Graz[2]. In 1106, a parish church with this name is mentioned, and according to F. Kos[3] we may think of the parish church of St. Pancratius in Stari trg or on the hill above it. In 1174, when settling a dispute over feudal rights between the abbot of the Belinja monastery near Aquileia and the Savinja deacon Bertold, the ecclesia sancti Pancratii de Graz is mentioned. From 1146, the landowners in the Mislinja Valley were the Counts of Andes. In 1180, they were given the title of Duke of Meran and thus became directly subordinate to the state or the emperor. Their Slovenjgraben estate was then exempted from the Duchy of Carinthia and formed an independent province. In 1218, the son of the Duke of Meran, Bertold (†1251), was elected Patriarch of Aquileia. After the death of his older brother Henry (†1228), who died without descendants, he became the sole owner of the Slovenjgraben estates, and thus, in the period that interests us most in connection with the church of St. Pancratius, the Mislinja Valley had a secular and ecclesiastical lord in one person. The first historical documents that reliably refer to the present-day building are reports of visitations. The record of the visitation of Ljubljana's bishop Tomaž Hren from 31 July 1600 states that the church on Pankracijev hrib, in the middle of the walls of the old castle, is very beautifully situated, square in shape, without a presbytery, its arches supported by a marble pillar in the middle of the church. The report of the visitation from 1652 lists the dimensions of the building and states that the building has two large upright windows on the east side, two large round windows on the south side and, next to the main entrance on the west side, another door facing south; that the bell tower in the free-standing old tower collapsed almost to the ground that very year. The record of the visitation from 1669 states that the bell tower was rebuilt. The church, as described in the visitation reports, can also be seen in Vischer's copper engraving of Slovenj Gradec from 1681: on a rather steep hill above the town, behind the walls, next to a free-standing bell tower, stands a square church, covered with a steep pyramidal roof and with two upright windows facing east. The visitations and the painting therefore describe the nave of the present-day church, without the presbytery added later. Today's Church of St. Pancras consists of: a free-standing bell tower, a church building with a centrally designed nave, a presbytery and a sacristy. On the south side of the church, the holy steps were added as the end of the Stations of the Cross, which begins at the Church of St. Radegund in the Old Square. The independently built bell tower next to the church is an extension of the former castle tower. The bell tower has walls more than 3 m thick in the lower part. Originally, it had no entrance at all below; the current entrance on the ground floor of the south wall is secondary and dates from the time the tower was rebuilt into a bell tower. According to Ivan Stopar, the lower part of the tower is a remnant of the former bergfried, while according to Marijan Zadnikar, the tower may have also been a residential building. After its upper part collapsed in 1652, it was rebuilt in the form of a bell tower by 1669. It is very likely that the tower, even if it was residential, was not the only castle building. Even the one and a half meter thick walls of the existing church nave show in the lower part a century and a half older than its vault. Perhaps they were originally castle living quarters. And even after they were converted into a chapel or church, it is possible that the residential role was taken over by a new, more contemporary palace, whose location Ivan Stopar assumes to be east of the present church[7]. The idea of such a development is encouraged by the discovery of a walled, secondary vaulted entrance to the church through the northern wall at the height of the first floor, which has a stone portal with a pointed arch on the inside of the nave, and a stone portal with a semicircular arch on the outside. But only archaeological research could provide an answer to all these assumptions. The bell tower has three bells, which do not ring, as the mechanism is broken. The church nave has a cubic shape, with sides of approximately 15 meters. Its exterior is undivided, without a foundation and without an attic cornice. The corners of the building are built from processed pieces of coarse-grained marble in the lower part, while the masonry continues with sandstone blocks higher up. The nave has two large round windows on the south side. The main entrance to the church on the west side, which was remodeled during the Baroque period, was restored to its original appearance during the restoration in 1959. The portal still has Romanesque features, as well as elements of the upcoming Gothic style. Remains of the contemporary figural painting are still visible in the tympanum, and the framed inscription *ECCLIA. SCI.PANGRATII* is carved on the flat lintel. The interior of the nave, with dimensions of an almost regular cube, is finished at the top with four equally high cross vaults, supported in the middle by a mighty column. The design is unusual for a medieval church; it would rather be attributed to a castle chapel, which, in addition to church services, also has secular functions. The column consists of a base with a square base, a cylindrical body and a capital. Each of these parts is made of a single piece of marble. The base and capital are undoubtedly medieval, while the body is from Roman times. The base is shaped as if it had spread over the edge of the square base under the weight of the load and must have been supported from below by tongue-shaped consoles, which is the last stage in the development of the Romanesque transformation of ancient bases. The middle, 5 m high part of the column tapers evenly towards the top. The capital has a cup-shaped shape, and on it lies an octagonal cover plate, onto which eight ribs of the arched structure converge. The supporting ribs, with a profile of a fluted rectangle and carved from gray-green sandstone, have the effect of a sloka. They cross in the joints, which are emphasized by smooth round plates, except for one, decorated with double bud leaves (which again is a support for the dating of the arch). On the walls, the cross and wall arches rest on marble consoles. The space, designed in this way, is illuminated by two round windows in the south wall, and until the Baroque era, it was also illuminated by two large upright windows in the east wall, ending with a slightly broken arch. Around 1700, a triumphal arch opening was made in the east wall of the then church and a three-sided presbytery was added to the nave; a high-quality Baroque altar of St. Pancras was placed in it. A choir was built along the west wall of the nave.
In the middle of the 18th century, a side altar of St. John of Nepomuk was placed along the north nave wall and opposite it, the altar of St. Aloysius, which is of the frame type; the altar paintings for all three altars were painted in the 1770s by the Slovenjgrad painter Janez Andrej Strauss (1721-1783). Under the choir is a stone Renaissance tombstone of the parish priest of Staro Trg, Andrej Tavčar, who died in 1638. In the mid-18th century, a sacred staircase was added to the church on the south side and above the sacristy in a covered, vaulted corridor, which ends at the top with an oval dome. The entrance to the corridor is decorated with a rich Baroque portal. The frescoes on the walls between the Renaissance-style windows of the corridor (the windows are drawn on the left side) depict scenes from the Passion. The arch of the corridor depicts the Mount of Olives with a cross in an illusionistic manner, and the dome depicts an allegory of faith. The frescoes were painted by the Slovenian Baroque painter Jožef Anton Lerchinger around 1770. Surround photography of the staircase show frescoes that have not been restored since their creation. The interior of the church was renovated by the Restoration Center of the Republic of Slovenia in the period from 1986 to 1999.
Literature and sources: |
Burger Landmarks / MojaSlovenija.si |
Digitalizacija dediščine: (c) Boštjan Burger, (1993) 1996-2025 |
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