Trnava - Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

The largest and most spectacular temple in Trnava is the two-towered Church of St. John the Baptist, the first building in Slovakia built in a new style - Baroque, modelled according to the Jesuit University Church in Vienna. The construction of this monumental temple was not only a prestige for the city, but also became a model for a new concept of sacral architecture throughout the country. In 1629 - 1637, the representative temple of the Jesuit University of Trnava, relatively simple from the outside, but filled with paint and gold, was built by Archbishop Jesuit Peter Pázmany on the site of the demolished Gothic church of the Dominicans. The dominant feature of the interior is the monumental main altar, considered the largest early baroque altar in Central Europe. But the main meaning of the interior is the story of the life of the patron saint of the church, St. John the Baptist, developed from his birth to a martyr's execution in the line of images of the main altar and four oval mirrors in the centre of the vault. A two-storey music tribune was created for a large music ensemble. The main source of funds for the freight construction was provided by a patron, palatine Nikolaus Esterházy of Galántha, and his son Paul later continued his work. However, with the church history, other sons of the palatine, brothers Ladislaus, Francis, Gasper and Thomas are sadly linked, who were killed in the Battle of Vozokany and were buried with great pomp in the local crypt under participation of representatives of the whole kingdom. At present, the church is the Cathedral temple of the Archdiocese of Trnava.

Source: http://www.vitajtevtrnave.sk/sk/register/katedrala-sv-jana-krstitela

Contact information:
Address: Roman Catholic Parish Office, Street of M. Sch. Trnavský no. 3, 917 01 Trnava 1
Telephone: 033/5931 081,
E-mail: dekanat.trnava@abu.sk
Wweb: https://www.abu.sk/