Church of St. Elisabeth (Bratislava)
Encyclopedia
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
(Jugendstil) Catholic church located in the eastern part of the Old Town
Old Town, Bratislava
The Old Town of Bratislava is the historic center and one of the boroughs of Bratislava, in the Bratislava Region of Slovakia. It is coextensive with the smallest Slovak administrative district by area, Bratislava I. It contains the small, but preserved medieval city center, Bratislava Castle and...
in Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
. It is consecrated to Elisabeth of Hungary
Elisabeth of Hungary
Elizabeth of Hungary, T.O.S.F., was a princess of the Kingdom of Hungary, Countess of Thuringia, Germany and a greatly-venerated Catholic saint. Elizabeth was married at the age of 14, and widowed at 20. She then became one of the first members of the newly-founded Third Order of St. Francis,...
, daughter of Andrew II
Andrew II of Hungary
Andrew II the Jerosolimitan was King of Hungary and Croatia . He was the younger son of King Béla III of Hungary, who invested him with the government of the Principality of Halych...
, who grew up in the Pressburg Castle
Bratislava Castle
Bratislava Castle is the main castle of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia.The massive rectangular building with four corner towers stands on a quite isolated rocky hill of the Little Carpathians directly above the Danube river in the middle of Bratislava...
(pozsonyi vár).
It is called "Blue Church" because of the colour of its façade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
, mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
s, majolicas
Maiolica
Maiolica is Italian tin-glazed pottery dating from the Renaissance. It is decorated in bright colours on a white background, frequently depicting historical and legendary scenes.-Name:...
and blue-glazed roof.
Architecture
The one-nave church was built in 1907-1908, four years after the plans of Ödön LechnerÖdön Lechner
Ödön Lechner was a Hungarian architect, nicknamed the "Hungarian Gaudí".Lechner was one of the early representatives of the Hungarian Secession movement, called szecesszió in Hungarian, which was related to Art Nouveau and Jugendstil in the rest of Europe...
to build a church in the Hungarian Art Nouveau style. The so-called Hungarian secessionist style forms dominate in the church. Lechner also drew plans of a neighbouring grammar school and of the vicarage.
The ground floor of the church is oval. In the foreground there is a 36.8 metre high cylindrical church tower. At first, a cupola
Cupola
In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....
was planned, but was never constructed; instead, a barrel vault
Barrel vault
A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault or a wagon vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve along a given distance. The curves are typically circular in shape, lending a semi-cylindrical appearance to the total design...
was built, topped by a hip roof
Hip roof
A hip roof, or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus it is a house with no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. Hip roofs on the houses could have two triangular side...
. The roof is covered with glazed bricks with decoration, for the purpose of parting.
The main and side entrances are enclosed with Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
double-pillars, which have an Oriental feeling. Pillars are also located near the windows.
The façade was at first painted with light pastel
Pastel
Pastel is an art medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation....
colours. Later the church got its characteristic blue colour. A line of blue tiles and wave-strip encircles the church.
Interior
The interior is richly decorated with altarpieceAltarpiece
An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...
s. On the altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
there is an illustration of St. Elisabeth, depicted giving out abilities to the beggars and poor.
A model of the church is in Mini-Europe
Mini-Europe
-See also:* Madurodam — Model village in Netherlands containing miniature famous Dutch landmarks* Catalunya en Miniatura — miniature park located 17 km away from Barcelona, with an exhibition area of 35.000 m2 including all major buildings of Catalonia and of Antoni Gaudí* Bekonscot...
in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, representing Slovakia.