Rijeka Cathedral of St. Vida is the only baroque rotunda of monumental proportions built on Croatian soil. The construction of this church began in 1638 according to the project of the Jesuit architect G. Brian. The famous Venetian church of Santa Maria della Salute served as a model.
For the construction site of the church of St. Vida was chosen as an elevated place in the middle of, at that time, dense, still medieval, urban tissue. There was originally a church of the same name, the patron saint of the city. The Jesuit order primarily decided to use the cult of the ancient Miraculous Crucifix from that church, which folklore says bled when a certain Petar Lončarić, in anger at the loss of the gamble, threw a stone at him. The early Gothic crucifix was incorporated into the baroque main altar of the new church, and there, as part of the narrative devotion inherent in miraculous relics, there were places for Lončarić's stone and a small bronze hand.
Investment in the construction of a new church of St. Vida exceeded the powers of the local environment, so it lasted intermittently for a whole century, and judging by the surfaces of the facade that are not covered with stone slabs, it was never completed. A significant change in the project took place in 1725 when the new construction manager B. Martinuzzi added a gallery to the church. A local legend explains that this happened because the Jesuits did not want the religious novitiate to mix with the people during the liturgy, especially with the beautiful girls from Rijeka.
The interior of the church is a true baroque "Gesamtkunstwerk", a unity of style. Authors of lush, luxurious baroque interiors, altars and pulpits, the masters came from Gorizia and Friuli: S. Petruzzi, P. Lazzarini, L. Pacassi and A. Michelazzi, the latter of whom settled in Rijeka. The author of the altarpiece of St. Josip with the Child Jesus is a Ljubljana painter originally from Lorraine, V. Metzinger. An unknown baroque master painted the altarpiece of St. Ignazia Loyole. In the 19th century, only Benvenuti's statue of Our Lady of Sorrows on the altar of the same name and Simonetti's painting of the Assumption of Mary belong here. The church dedicated in 1742 represents only the remnant of a complex that still included the buildings of the Jesuit seminary and college, and was demolished between the two world wars. The portal of the Jesuit College has been preserved by moving to the canonical building attached to the rear of the church of St. Life. Along the main portal of the church of St. Vida The people of Rijeka built a cannonball with a humorous inscription in Latin, which reads in translation: "This fruit was sent by England when it wanted to expel Gale from here." The inscription is a testimony to the episode of the Napoleonic Wars that took place in Rijeka in 1813. As the inscription is a chronogram, you will notice this year by reading the larger letters as Roman numerals. The cathedral is the church of St. Vida became between the two world wars. As the inscription is a chronogram, you will notice this year by reading the larger letters as Roman numerals. The cathedral is the church of St. Vida became between the two world wars. As the inscription is a chronogram, you will notice this year by reading the larger letters as Roman numerals. The cathedral is the church of St. Vida became between the two world wars.
With the announcement, it is possible to see the collection of paintings, goldsmiths, Mass vestments, rare books, graphics and other sacral works of art, which is arranged in the gallery of the cathedral. Be sure to visit it because there is also a portrait of St. Francis Xavier, patron saint of tourists
U baroknom stilu iznutra.