The St. Vitus Cathedral (Croatian: Katedrala Svetog Vida, Italian: Cattedrale di San Vito) is a Roman Catholiccathedral in Rijeka, Croatia. 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 town of Rijeka became the center of the diocese, and then in 1969 the center of the archbishopric and metropolit, the representative Jesuit's Church of St. Vitus became the Cathedral of Rijeka. The structure is a rotunda, which is unusual in this part of Europe, with elements of Baroque and Gothic, including fine baroque statuary inside.
The cathedral was depicted on the reverse of the Croatian 100 kuna banknote, issued in 1993 and 2002.[1]
History
Church of St. Vitus
The Church of St. Vitus (Croatian: Crkva sv. Vida) is the main Baroque church in the centre of Rijeka, Croatia, and one of the city’s most significant early modern monuments. Its history dates back to the Middle Ages, when a smaller church dedicated to the same saint stood on the site, serving as the court chapel of the feudal castle of Rijeka.
The Medieval Church of St. Vitus
While the civic population of Rijeka had its own parish church — St. Mary’s, also known as the “Great Church” (Croatian: Vela crkva) — the feudal castle possessed a separate chapel, the Church of St. Vitus. Information about its appearance is preserved in the oldest known depictions of the city from the 16th century and in a stone relief from 1509, which shows St. Vitus holding a model of the city in his hand. According to these sources, the church was a small single-nave building with a semicircular apse behind the altar and a porch in front of the façade.
In this church, the captains of Rijeka — governors representing the feudal lords — took their oaths of office upon assuming duty. Although the details of the interior decoration remain unknown, it is known that a large wooden crucifix was mounted under the porch. This very crucifix is now placed on the main altar of the present Baroque Church of St. Vitus.[2]
The Arrival of the Jesuits and the Advent of the Baroque
A major turning point in the cultural and artistic life of Rijeka occurred in 1627 with the arrival of the Jesuits. Their presence marked the beginning of a Baroque artistic orientation in architecture, sculpture, and painting. The Jesuits enjoyed the support of the Habsburg court, and their work in Rijeka was greatly aided by the noblewoman Ursula von Thanhausen, who donated her extensive feudal estates — encompassing the areas of present-day Kastav, Veprinac, and Mošćenice — thus providing a stable financial foundation for their undertakings in the city.
Due to the dense urban fabric of Rijeka, the only available land for new Jesuit constructions lay in the upper parts of the city. They were therefore granted possession of the medieval Church of St. Vitus and the adjacent land near the upper city gate, at a site known as “Grivica.” Since the old church was too small and stylistically outdated, the Jesuits decided to erect a completely new building.
Construction of the Baroque Church
Interior and Altar
On 15 June 1638, the feast day of St. Vitus, the foundation stone for the new church was solemnly laid. The design was prepared in 1637 by the Jesuit brother Giacomo (Jakov) Brianni from Modena, Italy.
Despite the revenues from their Kastav-Mošćenice estates, construction progressed slowly. The church was already in partial use by 1643, though still unfinished. During the building process, modifications were made to Brianni’s original plan: to accommodate a gallery for Jesuit students separate from the citizens, the structure had to be heightened and the dome raised, altering the church’s initial proportions.
The works continued intermittently from 1724 until 1767, and even then the church was never fully completed. The exterior walls, which today are covered in plaster, were originally intended to be faced with dressed stone.[3]
Certainly — here is a **revised formal and encyclopaedic version in English**, written in the tone and structure suitable for an academic or reference publication such as an art history encyclopedia or heritage catalogue:
Interior and Artistic Heritage
The interior of the Church represents a Baroque masterpiece — a synthesis of the arts and a harmonious unity of style. The exuberant and richly ornamented stucco decoration, together with the design of the altars and the pulpit, were executed by masters from Gorizia and Friuli: Sebastiano Petruzzi, Pasquale Lazzarini, Luca Pacassi, and Antonio Michelazzi, the latter of whom settled permanently in Rijeka.
Consecrated in 1742, the church was originally part of a larger Jesuit complex that included the seminary and the college buildings, which were demolished between the two World Wars. The portal of the Jesuit College has been preserved by being relocated to the canon’s house adjoining the apse of the church.
Next to the main portal of the Church of St. Vitus, citizens of Rijeka embedded a cannonball with a humorous Latin inscription, which in translation reads: “This fruit was sent by England when it wished to drive out the Gauls from here.” The inscription commemorates an episode from the Napoleonic Wars, which took place in Rijeka in 1813. It is also a chronogram, with the year revealed by reading the larger letters as Roman numerals.
The Church of St. Vitus was elevated to the rank of cathedral between the two World Wars. Today, by prior arrangement, visitors may view a collection exhibited in the cathedral gallery, comprising paintings, liturgical vestments, goldsmith’s works, rare books, prints, and other sacred art objects. Among the exhibits is also a portrait of St. Francis Xavier, the patron saint of travellers.[4]
Recent Years
Commemorative plaque in the Cathedral of St. Vitus marking the visit of the Pope John Paul II on 8 June, 2003
The Cathedral also houses one of Rijeka’s most venerated sacred artefacts — the True Cross.
The story of this True Cross, which has been preserved in the cathedral for centuries, probably begins in the 13th century, when the early Gothic wooden sculpture was carved. Produced in Germany, the crucifix was originally placed in the medieval Church of St. Vitus, on the site where the Jesuits later built the present cathedral.[5]
During his third visit to Croatia, Pope John Paul II visited Rijeka and Rijeka Cathedral, where he held a mass on 8 June 2003. With Rijeka, he visited Osijek, Zadar and Dubrovnik and held masses there.[6]
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