The Memorial Church of St. Spirit in Javorca above the Valley Polog (virtual excursion). The secession wooden church was built to commemorate thousands of fallen soldiers on the Isonzo Front in the First World War and illustrates the message: Peace (Pax). The church is under monumental protection and falls under the cultural monuments of Slovenia. In 1999, the church was proclaimed a cultural monument of national importance, in 2007 it was included in the list of particularly important historical and cultural heritage of Europe and in 2018 received the sign of European heritage.
Location: Plateau of Polog above Zatolmin (lat: 46 ° 14 '07 "N / lon 13 ° 43' 25" E (altitude 570 m))
Completed project: November 1, 1916
Authors: Rimigius Geyling (author of architecture and decoration)
Geza Jablonsky (Building and Head of Works)
Anton Perthoner (wooden part of the altar)
Investors: Soldiers of the 3rd Mountain Brigade of the Austro-Hungarian Army
Building type: Tryladian Basilic Church
Memorial Church of St. The Javorca spirit is a comprehensive artwork in the best tradition of Vienna Secession. It stands in the heart of the valley of the Tolminka River and the natural amphitheater surrounded by the peaks of the Julian Alps. The construction of the church is related to the events on the Isonzo Front during the First World War. The church was funded and built by soldiers of the 3rd Brigade of the Austro-Hungarya Army, who then fought on this high mountain battlefield, in order to preserve the memory of fallen fellows. The plans for the church and the landscaping were made by the Austrian painter and designer Remigius Geyling (1878-1974), then the Supervisor of the Austro-Hungarian army.
Geyling was born in a family of painterd who came to Vienna from the Netherlands in the mid -18th century and opened a glass school workshop there. Father Rudolf Geyling took over a successful family business in 1880, which marked the Remigius life. Family relatives after his mother Mary with composer Richard Heuberger later directed him to the theater. Geyling has been friend with many important persons of his time, especially with painter Gustav Klimt (1862-1918). He also collaborated with architect Otto Wagner (1841-1918) in equipping the church Steinhof in Vienna. Remigius Geyling was called into the army on August 1, 1914. He fought on three fronts, most recently in Soča region (Isonzo battlefield). In Javorca in the valley of Tolminka, he and Lieutenant Gézo Jablonski have left a permanent monument to the fallen fellows. On the Isonzo Front, he produced several study drawings and models of the church in Javorca, in 1917 exhibited at a war exhibition in Vienna Prater. He received the war medal of Franz Joseph and several other decorations. From 1922 until his retirement in 1946, he worked at Burgtheater. He was a recognized professor, inventor of special projection effects and one of the more prominent Viennese personalities in the art world.
He was in charge of execution of the construction work, and as head of the construction site was the Hungarian lieutenant Geza Jablonsky. The wooden part of the altar was made by the South Tyrol carver and then artilleryman Anton Perathoner (1888-1965).
Anton Peramoner was from St. Ulrich in South Tyrol. On the Isonzo Front, he was a artillery in the 3rd mountain brigade, in K.u.K. Mountain artillery no. 14 (K.u.K. Geb. Art. Rgt. N. 14 Kaiser). At the time of the construction of the memorial church in Javorca, he assisted as an officer's servant the architect of the church Remigius Geyling. With him, he even went to Vienna for the construction of the memorial church. Perathoner took over all the more important carpentry works. He made an altar in the church, according to Geyling's design, he carved the door of the tabernacle, a large wooden cross with Christ, and from yew wood, as well as a prototype of honorary chairs in Javorca.
The church was built on a man made flat-balanced slope, to which a wide terraced, four-staged staircase leads.
Church of St. Spirit is an architecturally false nave Basilica with a rectangular presbytery, which is with a five corners finish at the altar. The lower base of the church, the terrace and the fence around the church are made of irregular blocks of stone, which was broken by soldiers in the immediate vicinity. The visual effect is as if the church would naturally continue from the stone base. A wooden structure is built on the built -up, stone -based, whose internal and exterior frames consist of larch beams. The outer edges of the beams are extended in the 'zigzag' line.
Above the entrance to the church, the octagonal bell tower rises with a pointed steep roof. On the bell tower base is a sunny clock on a wooden board with a double coat of arms of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. On the side facades and according to the presbytery, boards with the humps of all twenty lands of the monarchy of the then monarchy are installed between the windows.
The interior of the building is a indoor space, which is divided by eight beams into naves. Two beams support an arcle. The middle nave is slightly higher than the side but has no light floor. The windows are arranged in the upper part of the outer wall. Above the entrance is a 'window in a set' that indicates the influence of the Glasgow school. The light of the windows is through colored glasses (Geyling ancestors and also his father Rudolf, the glassmakers were in Vienna. Therefore, it is not surprising Rimigius mastered and stained glass art).
Together with the color decoration of beams, ceiling and walls, it creates a focused feeling. The lower part of the room is darker, with blue shades of gold. The presbytery is increasingly dominated by white and gold. The altar is white and gold colored, the stop presbytery is made of white plates.
The painting of beams, wall panels and ceiling tapes play a geometric motors, related colors and motors of Arab ceramic tiles. The basic decorative and symbolic character is the same cross, and the square and rhombus are derived from it. Because the decoration is drawn hands-free, they do not function monotonous, mechanical. The colors are in just one shade, but their visual combinations and light of colored glasses always create different, overflowing tones.
The equipment is an integral part of the building, made of materials available at the time of construction, and with military engineering knowledge. Part of the interior fittings juiced lamps attached to the supporting wooden beams and altar candlesticks made of wood.
A more accurate carving work of the relief of the cross with the angels at the door of the Tabernakelj and the decoration of the altar was observed by the southern Tiolecanton Perathoner. The one part of the equipment that was not made by the insite is the altar mosaic of St. A spirit consisting of revelated glass particles. The mosaic is formed by the central field of the altar in the form of a cross. On the right and left triumphal walls are mounted high oil paintings on the canvas that show the angel and were drawn by Remigius Geyling.
The specialty of the church of St. Spirit is its message, which is the first inscriptions installed on the facade and inside the church. The inscriptions report basic information about the 3rd mountain brigade, its commanders, the authorship of the church, the datum of the laid of the foundation stone (March 1, 1916) and its completion (November 1, 1916). The inscription under the coat of arms of the monarchy (Indivisibilitier ac inseparabiliter) points out that there were males of different nationalities and Vera who came from all Austro-Hungarian lands. The inscription at the top of the triumphal wall proclaims the purpose of the builders in order to preserve the names on the fallen socialists. The interior of the church is like a book that states the names of thousands of fallen. The lower part of the walls of the church ship cover oak boards from containers for cannon grenades. For more than months, soldiers have illuminated nearly three-year names of fallen fellows. On the walls, the proposer for the names of fallen soldiers ran out, so additional plates were attached to hinges and opened as book sheets.
Due to the use of state symbols, the superficial maple maple would be labeled the glorification of the then monarchy. However, the truth is different. Above the double state coat of arms is a meaningful word 'pax', above it is a sunny hour as a symbol of the transience of human and permanent nature.
In 1998, the Javorca area was affected by a strong earthquake that caused numerous rock collapses in the environment and severely damaged the buildings. The church of St. The spirit, which was renovated, is between 2004 and 2005.
Cited and summarized from the Secession Architecture in Slovenia, Javorca Memorial Church of St. Spirit, Jela Pirkovič, Breda Mihelič, 1997, p. 104-106, European Cultural Heritage Days, Slovenian National Commission for UNESCO.
Literature: Eine Gedachtiskirche von Remigius Geyling, der Architect: Wiener Monat
Web Source: Beyond the ashes of the hatred of anger dies, Tolmionski muzej, URL: https://www.tol-muzej.si/javca/iju/16, cited July 10, 2023.
virtual excursion