| In Gornji Grad, in the Zadrečka Valley, reigns the Baroque Church of St. Mohor and St. Fortunatus. In 1140 a Benedictine monastery was built on the initiative of the patriarch Peregrin in the middle of the town settlement. It was dissolved in 1473. The monastery walls and some towers are partly preserved. The larger tower was rebuilt into compartments and has a gallery on the first floor. Romanesque characteristics are also revealed in the foot of the church tower and in the lapidary on the ground floor of this bell tower. Carved stones testify to the quality of builders and stonecutters, who were skilled in making vegetal adornments on the capitals. Around 1500 the Ljubljana Bishops arranged a summer residence with the cathedral in the monastery. The church was rebuilt several times. The construction of the new church in the shape of the Latin cross with a dome at the crossing and a scenic west façade was led by Matija Perski in the middle of the 18th century, who certainly needed helpers for that extensive work. The old sanctuary was torn down and the bell tower from 1671 was rebuilt and covered by bulbous crown. The new white-toned façade is concavely shaped and waving, divided by pilasters. The last renovation of the interior and exterior of the church was for the most part concluded in 1989.
The nave of this large, perhaps even the largest church in Slovenia, is divided by pilasters that form shallow chapels. At the crossing of the main and the transversal nave on the drum above the exaggeratedly gradated wall and the capitals of the pilasters there is an ellipsoid shaped cupola. A special feature is the fitting of the side altars with oil paintings by Johann Martin Kremser Schmidt, painted between 1773 and 1775. The pictures by Leopold Layer and Pavel Künl are not of as high quality. In the vestibule there are Renaissance tombs of bishops. The epitaphs of Bishops Krištof Ravbar (1527) and Ivan Kacijanar are of high quality, as is Andrej's altar, the work of Ožbal Kitll from the same period, which is placed in a glassed hall by the church. The organs were made by Alois Hoerbiger in 1842. The vault of the presbytery was painted at the end of the 19th century. Another special feature of the church is the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre. The sculptures in the niches of the façade were made by Strauba (1755).
The yard in front of the church is arranged with benches and a well. The monastery was almost completely destroyed during World War II. In the renovated tracts there is a parsonage and several collections. The collection of postcards and sacral images is quite interesting. The parish centre is regularly maintained and accessible. |