CHURCH OF THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY – Apatin

CHURCH OF THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY – Apatin

Following the catastrophic flood of 1795, which completely devastated a large proportion of Apatin’s building stock, a dynamic period of urban development began in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, with the formation of a new, urban part of the town. Alongside a number of public buildings, including a school, municipal building, butchers’ shop and inn, one of the key urban landmarks of the newly established town centre was a religious building: the Roman Catholic Church of the Assumption of Mary. At that time, Apatin was home to a large number of skilled craftsmen who enjoyed an excellent reputation throughout the wider region, particularly in bricklaying, carpentry and roofing. The execution of this demanding construction project was therefore entrusted to one of Apatin’s most experienced builders, Johann Gemacher, who was also involved in the construction of a number of prestigious and technically challenging buildings in Sombor and the surrounding area. Once the building plans had been finalised — the original design having been abandoned in favour of a larger building — and the necessary financial resources secured, construction began in 1795. Intensive building work continued until 1798, when the church was completed. The Church of the Assumption of Mary was built on the town’s main street, which was officially renamed Church Street (Crkvena ulica) in its honour. The building was positioned directly on the street building line and designed as a three-aisled church, measuring 25 Viennese fathoms in length and 10 fathoms in width (one fathom being equivalent to 1.896 metres). The church tower rises from the front of the main façade, which displays characteristics of the Kopf style, also known as Danube Baroque. A simple sacristy stands alongside the left-hand side of the apse, which takes the form of an incomplete semicircle. The interior of the Church of the Assumption of Mary was first painted in 1882 by the Pécs-based artist Maxreiter. In 1898, as part of the celebrations marking the centenary of the church’s construction, the interior was painted again. The artists commissioned for this particularly demanding undertaking were Franz Lohr and Karl Greiner, an artist from Apatin. Despite the exceptional quality of their work, the church was subsequently decorated with another complete cycle of paintings, which continues to adorn its interior today. The interior of this religious building is decorated in the Neo-Baroque style, featuring painted ornaments in anthropomorphic, floral and geometric forms. The vault of the central nave contains several New Testament compositions executed in tempera using the al secco technique, in which paint is applied to a dry surface, such as plaster. The decorative work was entrusted to Rudolf Udvari, a painter from Apatin, who successfully completed what was his most demanding commission in 1939, working from designs by the Munich artist Richard Holzner. Udvari had previously painted several other churches and, after the Second World War, decorated the interior of the main hall of the Cultural Centre and one wall of the ceremonial hall of the Apatin Municipal Assembly. The first organ for the Church of the Assumption of Mary was built in 1797 by the renowned Apatin organ builder Kaspar Fischer. It was an exceptional two-manual instrument with 16 stops, combining outstanding craftsmanship and technical quality with artistic merit. The organ remained in use until 1912, when it was replaced by a new instrument. In addition to statues of St Peter and St Paul, donated by Apatin’s fishermen’s guild, a particularly noteworthy item among the church’s collection of artistic artefacts is a Baroque statue of the Black Virgin, also known as the Black Madonna.

27 Srpskih Vladara, Apatin
www.apatin.org.rs/videti-i-iskusiti/razgledanje/religijski-objekti/crkva-uznesenja-marijinog_73

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