| Once you are in the square Slomškov trg, you must visit Maribor Cathedral. The construction of the cathedral and its further development brought Maribor additional cultural impetus and enforcement. It was built in the 12th century as a Romanesque building. Today it shows a Gothic style with a long chancel dating from the 14th century and a central church nave from the 15th century.
Do you enjoy looking at things from a bird’s perspective?
Climb to the top of the bell tower and you will have a view over the city and far beyond! The 57 metre high classicist designed bell tower dates back to the end of the 18th century as the primarily 76-metre high bell tower built by Pavel Porta in the year 1623 was struck by lightening.
The first Slovene saint Anton Martin Slomšek in the Cathedral
The long chancel or presbytery is completed with choir benches dating from 1771, on which there are shallow, gilded relief images of scenes from the life of St John the Baptist created by carver Jožef Holzinger. It is here that stands a statue of Bishop Slomšek, made by sculptor Franc Zajec in the year 1878. In the presbytery are also the Bishop's Chair dating from 1890 and the vaulted tomb of Maribor's bishops. Carver Jožef Holzinger in the Baroque period built the chapel of the Holy Cross, furnished with an altar. The tomb of Bishop Slomšek was placed in this altar in 1996. On the 4th September 1859 Slomšek transferred the seat of the Lavantine diocese to Maribor.
Visit the Cathedral and do not forget to climb up to the bell tower!
TOWN GUILDS AND BELLS
What presents made the butcher's, baker's and goldsmith's town guilds?
In 1981 the cathedral got a new organ and a beautiful concert place. On the ceiling of the central naive hang extremely interesting chandeliers dating from the year 1686. The chandeliers bear symbols that show their source, for they were a gift from the butcher's, baker's and goldsmith's town guilds. On the wall in the central naive hang two pictures: the first is of a copy of the Ruben's painting Descent from the Cross and the second represents the Christening in the river Jordan.
The pulpit is the work of an unknown author dating from 1670. On it are the figures of St Peter and St Paul and the four evangelists - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. From that period there are still in the church the altar of Marije Pomocnice dating from 1699 with a statue of Mary dating from the year 1500, the Xavier chapel from 1716 with medallion paintings by Jakob Broll from 1873 and the Chapel of the Cross. The ceiling fresco Raising of the Holy Cross from the year 1775 was painted by the Graz painter Adam
Molk.
Complications with the bells
Among the modern furnishings in the church is the glass stained window in the presbytery and the new altar, the lectern and Bishop's Chair, the work of Jože Kregar. Since 1989 in the bell tower are once again four bells. In the parish chronicle is namely written that at the beginning of the last century four bells hung in the tower. Two were removed during the First World War. The biggest bell weighed 3880 kg; it cracked on 20th August 1921 during the bell ringing for the late King Peter I. In the bell tower there remained until the present time only the middle bell called John the Baptist, tuned to the tone Es, weighing 1600 kg and cast in 1651. After the First World War the inhabitants of Maribor acquired four bells. During the Second World War those bells were taken.
BETNAVA HISTORIA LAVANTINA – A PERMANENT EXHIBITION OF THE RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE OF THE MARIBOR ARCHDIOCESE
The museum collection with original documents and objects from the treasury of the Maribor diocese represents a rich cultural heritage and nearly 800 year-long history of the Lavantine diocese, which in 1962 was renamed Maribor Diocese, and in 2006 received a status of archdiocese. By visiting the museum visitors can get to know an important part of the Slovenian history, which cannot be offered anywhere else.
The beginning of the tale
Betnava Historia Lavantina begins its story one hundred years before the first mention of the Betnava mansion. That was in 1228, when a request by the Salzburg Archbishop Eberhard II, addressed to Pope Honor III, for the establishment of a diocese with its seat in St. Andraž in Carinthia, was approved. Likewise it was also the beginning of religious and cultural activity, which throughout the centuries carried out several significant deeds. It changed not only the ecclesiastical landscape but also triggered efficacious impacts on national, political and particularly cultural life in Carinthia and Štajerska.
Lavantine Diocese and A.M. Slomšek
The exhibition enumerates a few scenes, which with original material show the growth of the Lavantine diocese. Here numerous liturgical objects (mass vestments, mitres, episcopal staffs, other episcopal equipment, monstrance, chalices), which prove the seriously organized and religiously occupied work of a series of Lavantine bishops, beginning with Ulrich I in 1228 and ended in 1859, when Anton Martin Slomšek, the 54th Lavantine bishop, transferred the seat of the Lavantine diocese from St. Andraž to
Maribor. Scenes from the development and life of the Lavantine diocese are accompanied by original archive material, and supplemented by other illustrations. Anton Martin Slomšek was – we could say – the last Lavantine bishop and the first of Maribor. At the exhibition, designed in Slomšek's image, which in all saintliness rose above a line of Lavantine bishops, there is a presentation of the main, most significant
points of his episcopal and national-cultural work.
Slomšek can be experienced and charismatically felt by looking at his personal things, and his greatness understood with his beatification, which Pope John Paul II did in front of a multitude of people, who gathered on the 19th of September 1999 on the clearing by Betnava Mansion.
The exhibition is open to the public on Sunday and Monday 14.00 - 17.00, and Tuesday
- Saturday 9.00 – 17.00.
Working time: Holy mass: Sunday and holidays: 7 am, 8 am, 9 am, 10 am, 11 am, 6 pm; April 6.30 pm, May-August 7 pm. Working days: 6.30 am, 7 am, 7.30 am, 8 am and 6 pm; April 6.30 pm, May-August 7 pm. Viewing platform: open 8.00-18.00 |