Parish Church Research Articles

Innovation in Christchurch Church Architecture

Several church buildings erected in Christchurch in the 1960s signalled significant departures in the city's established traditions of church architecture. They included three Roman Catholic parish churches – St Matthew's Bryndwr, Our Lady of Victories, Sockburn, and St Anne's, Woolston. This paper focuses on the most innovative and striking of these three churches, Our Lady of Victories, Sockburn. It sets the building in the broader context of post-war church architecture in Christchurch. Innovation in Christchurch church architecture had begun in the 1950s with a number of brick churches, but significant departures from established church building forms did not occur until the 1960s. Our Lady of Victories reflected with particular drama the impact on church architecture of the changes in Roman Catholic liturgy associated with the Second Vatican Council. The paper describes the process through which the radically new design emerged, paying particular attention to the interaction between the architect, C.R. Thomas, and the new Roman Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, Brian Ashby. The paper also sets the design of the church in the context of New Zealand, and international, architectural trends in the late 1950s and 1960s.

«Власть ключей» и исповедь: пастырская власть в «Шести чтениях о Таинстве Покаяния в его истории» прот. Валентина Свенцицкого

This article focuses on the concept of pastoral power as presented by Fr Valentine Sventzitsky in his text “Six Readings on the Sacrament of Penance in its History”, which is significant for contemporary Russian Orthodoxy. Opposing the practice of general confession in the 1920s, he contrasts it with private confession, basing his arguments on pre-revolutionary studies of penitential practices and priesthood. At the same time, in Sventzitsky’s text, academic theses undergo a significant transformation in connection with his historiosophic and religious-philosophical ideas. First of all, he uses in this context the theory of the gradual unfolding of the Church's self-consciousness in history and projects this theory onto the theological reflection on the development of the forms of the Sacraments. In the same vein, in relation to ecclesiastical practices, he applies the theory of the historical differentiation in the Church of good and evil. In this context we analyze Sventzitsky's ideas about the secularization of the Church, to which he contrasts the active spiritualization of all life and formulates this call in the idea of a monastery in the world. The article shows what place the priest has in the formation of the monastery in the world. Against this background, the analysis of representations of pastoral power both in the “Readings” and in other texts by Sventzitsky, and correlating them with the sources on which he relies, allows us to highlight his thesis about the transformation of this type of power in history. The author of the Readings identifies three characteristic periods in which pastoral power changed from its public dimension in the ancient Church, communal — in Byzantine monasteries and Russian parish churches, and, finally, personal-psychological — in the context of the Soviet period. These three types of pastoral power are analyzed by Sventzitsky in connection with the transformation in historical perspective of the forms of confession, the continuity of the “power of the keys” in the Church, and the actualization of obedience in church life. From this perspective, Sventzitsky offers a theological justification for the established practice of confession, which he constructs as a bricolage of Russian academic theology and philosophy.

Why Are the Early Gothic Murals in St. Jacob’s Church in Ormož, Slovenia, Almost Entirely Black?

In St. Jacob’s parish church in Ormož, Slovenia, mural paintings from around 1350–1370 are partially conserved in the northeastern corner of the main nave. They are almost completely black, indicating a large-scale pigment degradation. They were studied as a part of a larger research project aiming to identify materials applied and their possible degradation. First, they were studied in situ, and next, extracted samples of plaster, pigments, and colour layers were analysed by optical microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, FTIR spectroscopy, SEM-EDS, and XRD. Haematite, green earth, malachite, azurite, and tenorite were identified, showing that azurite and perhaps also malachite degraded to black tenorite, probably due to their fine grinding and their application directly on the fresh plaster. The plaster is made with small and large amounts of aggregate with mostly quartz with some impurities, which makes it fragile. The original appearance of these murals was of bright blue and green colours.

Financing Church Extension: The Case of the Edinburgh Savings Bank and St John's Parish Church, Edinburgh

This paper describes the way in which St John's parish church, Edinburgh, was financed; highlighting the part played by the Directors of the Edinburgh Savings Bank. It further analyses the impact of the Disruption on the church's seat rent income; the primary means by which residual debt liquidation was to be accomplished. As a case study, it offers a revealing sidelight on the financial consequences of the Disruption at the congregational level.

Patrons of Parish Churches in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York

From the very beginning of the Catholic Church, the intercession of saints has played an important role in Christian religious life. Each newly built church was dedicated to a mystery of faith or to a particular saint who was worshipped in that place. Over the years, the dedication of the church would also become the dedication of the parish. This article discusses names of the parishes of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, which was formed in 1957. The study covered 133 parishes. According to the scheme used in the literature, all the names are divided into Trinitarian, Christological, Marian, angelic, and hagiographical names. Double dedications are discussed separately, and the dedications of parishes established after the formation of the Diocese of Rockville Centre are shown.

Processing water birds for food at the Island of Kökar in the Baltic Sea during the medieval and early modern period (ca. CE 1400–1700)

AbstractFew studies have been made of the specific importance of waterfowl as food in the Baltic Sea during the late medieval and early modern period. This study shows the seasonal importance of water birds to island and coastal inhabitants living in the middle of the Baltic Sea during the late medieval and early modern periods (ca. CE 1400–1700) and practical implementations for interpretation of cut and chop marks. The paper is based on a bird bone assemblage retrieved from a remote ecclesial site on the island group of Kökar, which is part of the Åland Islands, as well as historical documents and local specialist knowledge. The site was established by Franciscan friars somewhere in the mid‐15th century. Documents indicate that the friars had landownership, income from taxing nearby fisheries, and the right to seal tithe. These assets were taken over by the crown in the mid‐16th century due to the Reformation and a parish church was established on the same site after the friary was dissolved. The bone assemblages from the site include birds, mammals, and fish. The material shows a relatively small number of chicken bones in relation to waterfowl, allowing one to look closer into the structural food economy around water birds for the area. The bones also show several cut and chop marks, which have been analyzed to explore the possible processing of these birds. The results show that fowling was concentrated to a couple of species most likely during spring when these species were abundant. The placement of the cut and chop marks indicates that a large number of birds were likely processed at the same time.

“…far et intagliar, e scolpir il nuovo Tabernacolo”: Alvise Tagliapietra i mramorni tabernakul za nekadašnju katedralu u Osoru

This paper presents an unknown document about the construction of the marble tabernacle in the Corpus Christi chapel in the former Osor Cathedral, which has been attributed to the Venetian sculptor Alvise Tagliapietra (Venice, 1670–1747) through stylistic analysis. An archival source reveals an agreement concluded in Venice on September 20, 1708, between the representatives of the confraternity of Corpus Christi from Osor and Tagliapietra, whose workshop was located in the parish of San Moisè. The sculptor agreed that he would complete the works within five months. He was also to procure a small, gilded metal door and a statuette of the Risen Christ made of gilded copper. The price of the tabernacle was three hundred ducats, to be paid to Alvise in three instalments. He was to receive the first part upon signing the contract, the second during the work on the tabernacle, and the last upon delivering the tabernacle and installing it in the cathedral. Another contract published here was signed between the confraternity and the Venetian altar maker Zuanne Trognon in Cres on July 20, 1710. The master was to carve a new marble altar for the chapel to place Tagliapietra’s tabernacle on it. Trognon agreed to construct the altar for a total sum of 230 ducats, to be paid in three instalments, the last upon delivering the altar to Osor. Zuanne undertook to complete the entire work by June 1711. Finally, the altar arrived from Venice by boat on June 12, 1711, requiring additional funds from the brethren for its transportation, assembly, and placement in the confraternity chapel. Tagliapietra, like other Venetian sculptors, also received commissions from private clients. These concerned artworks for the sumptuous interiors and exteriors of numerous palaces owned by the Venetian elite. On this occasion, a marble bust of Venus from the Giusti Palace in Verona has been included in his oeuvre. Another hitherto unattributed work by Tagliapietra can be found in the Oratory of St Jacob located within the former Villa D’Arco in Corno Alto near Verona. It is a sculpture of the Immaculate Conception, similar to Tagliapietra’s allegorical depiction of Faith on the Osor tabernacle. The Venetian sculptor and his collaborators often replicated workshop sculptures due to frequent commissions of the same saintly statues for various churches in smaller towns of Friuli and Veneto. This is indicated, among other things, by Alvise’s hitherto unattributed monumental statues of St Nicholas the Bishop and St George from the parish church of the same name in Colloredo di Prato near Udine. In Alvise’s cycle from Rovinj, on which the master was assisted by his sons, the two large marble angels next to the retable of the altar of St Euphemia stand out in quality. The closest stylistic and chronologic analogy are the monumental angels on the main altar of the parish church in Conselve, carved in 1737. Tagliapietra used the same models for the previously unattributed angels on the main altar of the parish church in Pincara near Rovigo. At the end of his career, he also created a marble sculpture of Our Lady of the Rosary for commissioners from Rovinj. On that occasion, he replicated the monumental statue of the same name that he had carved in 1734 for the Venetian church of Santi Biagio e Cataldo, today located in the parish church of Solesino. It should be noted that Alvise Tagliapietra delivered the same sculpture around the 1740s for the oratory of a villa owned by the Venetian Condulmer family in Zerman near Treviso.

Pročelja crkava u Međimurju u razdoblju baroka. Prilog poznavanju tipologije sakralne arhitekture kontinentalne Hrvatske

An overview of the façades of Međimurje churches built during the Baroque period reveals a typological affinity with comparable regions in continental Croatia – Hrvatsko Zagorje, Varaždin County, and Križevci-Koprivnica County – as well as some characteristic peculiarities. Most have a bell tower in front of the façade, following a traditional form since the Middle Ages, including churches in Sveti Martin na Muri, Selnica, Prelog, Gornji Mihaljevec, Sveti Križ, Cirkovljan, Donji Kraljevec, Dekanovec, Mursko Središće, Podturen, Sveta Marija, Ivanovec, Sveti Juraj u Trnju, Belica, Nedelišće, Kotoriba, and Razkrižje. The oldest among these are the churches of St Martin in Sveti Martin na Muri and St Mark in Selnica, with bell towers in front of the façade supported by buttresses, along with the likewise older parish church in Prelog. The bell tower of the church in Kotoriba stands out with its curved sides as a high-Baroque design. Apart from being positioned in front of the façade, the bell tower is sometimes located next to it, as observed in the parish church in Goričan and the Franciscan church in Čakovec, where the bell tower’s position follows the tradition of spatial organization in Franciscan building complexes. A third variant within this group is the bell tower’s placement next to the sanctuary, as yet another example of continued tradition, seen in churches in Donji Vidovec, Lopatinec (Sveti Juraj na Bregu), and Štrigova. These examples of adding a Baroque bell tower to the Gothic sanctuary emphasizes continuity and long duration, important features of re-Catholicization in regions with widespread Protestantism. Stylistically more pronounced is the type of façade with an integrated bell tower, prevalent in 18th-century architecture across Central Europe and exemplified by churches in Legrad, Novo Selo Rok, and Kapelščak. The most complex in terms of design are church façades with two bell towers, such as St Jerome in Štrigova and St Rochus in Draškovec. The Pauline church in Štrigova shows numerous parallels with the Maria Trost church in Graz, executed by the Stengg construction workshop – including its prominent position in the landscape, the wide façade with bell towers on the sides, the curved contour of the central gable, and the originally rich architectural articulation. The church in Draškovec is an exquisite combination of late Baroque style in its interior design and emphasized Classicism in the design of the façade and the bell tower. In addition to numerous common features, such as the typology and adoption of certain traditional solutions, the peculiarity of this group of churches in relation to other regions of continental Croatia is the appearance of dynamically shaped façades and bell towers. Churches in Lopatinec and, to a lesser extent, in Legrad have façades along the curve of the ground plan, while the bell tower of the church in Kotoriba has an accentuated dynamic plan, with recessed sides and prominent corners with pilasters. These examples demonstrate the adoption of influences from neighbouring Styria, especially the sacral architecture of Graz’s architect Johann Georg Stengg. Another specificity of the corpus of Međimurje churches is the number of churches designed in the Classicist style, with high-quality achievements in a combination with late Baroque, reflecting the proximity and connectedness of Međimurje to the Hungarian artistic circles. The analysis of bell tower and façade designs in this corpus has shown that within the typological groups present across the area, along with the general features of Baroque architecture, one also finds very specific solutions that corresponded to the needs of the environment. In other words, the adoption of models and their adaptation to the local context is an example of cultural transfer expressing the local character, in which the commissioning environment has left its visible mark.

Slikar Ivan Benković i hrvatska iseljenička zajednica u Sjedinjenim Američkim Državama od 1912. do 1918. godine

In the period from the 1880s to the end of World War I, several Croatian artists resided in the USA. In the 1880s, these included the Dubrovnik painters Vlaho Bukovac and Niko Zec, and in the early twentieth century, painters Bela Csikos Sesia, Robert Auer, and Oton Iveković, and sculptors Rudolf Valdec and Dujam Penić, as well as the lesser-known sculptors Pavao Kelečić Kufrin and Ivan Bulimbašić. With the exception of Oton Iveković, who painted the parish church of St John the Baptist in Kansas City in 1910, they did not significantly contribute to the cultural space of the Croatian diaspora during this period. The first Croatian artist who actively engaged with the diaspora was the painter and graphic artist Ivan Benković (Rečica, 1886 - Chicago, 1918), a member of the first generation of students at the newly founded future Academy, at that time the Temporary Higher School for Arts and Crafts in Zagreb. After receiving his diploma in 1911, he briefly stayed in Vienna and Paris before emigrating to New York in the spring of 1912. He then lived in Chicago from 1915 until his death. Most of his artworks and documentation, preserved in private archives, remained largely unknown to researchers until recently, and his life and work during his stay in the USA were almost completely unknown. From 1913, Benković closely cooperated with the Croatian Union in New York, the first major political organization of Croats in the USA. Upon moving to Chicago in 1915, he collaborated with the Croatian National Community, the Croatian Community of Illinois, and the Croatian Falcon in the west. During World War I, he supported the Yugoslav movement through his artistic work, cooperating with the Yugoslav Union and the Yugoslav Committee in London. Benković’s work on the design of Croatian-American printed matter included a variety of magazine covers, memorials, and diplomas, as well as the logotype of the most widespread Croatian-American daily newspaper, Hrvatski svijet, which was renamed Jugoslovenski svijet in 1917. He translated the contemporary aspirations towards national expression, incorporating reworked folk motifs from his homeland into the American environment. Through his artistic contributions to shaping the visual identity of Croatian-American printed matter and artworks with national themes combined with contemporary artistic solutions, he actively participated in constructing the cultural identity of emigrants during the continuous process of their positioning within “other” cultures. The role of culture and art is crucial in building a collective identity, especially during times of significant political upheaval, such as the years before and during World War I. Benković found himself at the right time in the position of a visual artist in America, acting as a “fighter for shaping national identity.” Until 1918, alongside Meštrović, who was renowned in America at that time due to the publication of his art in the Croatian-American press, Benković was the only prominent Croatian artist who successfully connected with the political efforts of the Croatian diaspora. Nevertheless, his oeuvre remained largely anonymous, limited to the Croatian community, which nearly forgot him after the disappointment with the developments in the Yugoslav situation after 1918.

Connecting Historic Graffiti to Past Parishes and Beliefs

Historic graffiti offer new and interesting insights into late medieval and early modern English society. This paper will show the value of studying these inscriptions by discussing two churches constructed in the late medieval period in Suffolk, England, with drawings of two figures that potentially represent the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. These drawings are similar and yet quite different in their quality and execution, and they possibly relate to lost medieval imagery within the building. These images may also have been created in response to various iconoclastic movements that occurred as part of the Reformation as well as after it. This paper seeks to encourage further study on the relationship between historic graffiti and local history by observing the connection between the late medieval parish churches of Lidgate and Stradishall and their respective figural drawings by suggesting that graffiti serve a larger purpose than idle drawing or doodling and instead are valuable pieces of evidence about parish life and values.

Посвящения престолов приходских церквей Кольского благочиния в первой половине XIX века

The article deals with the previously unexplored issue of the consecration of the holy tables of the parish churches of the Kola deanery in the first half of the XIX century. The research is based on the data of the statements compiled for the Arkhangelsk Ecclesiastical Consistory in 1844 and preserved in the National Archive of the Republic of Karelia. For the first time, the number of main and additional holy tables in the churches of the deanery district is determined and the features of the existing spectrum of church names are revealed. It turns out that the system of patronal dedications of the existing temples was formed at the end of the XIV–XVII centuries under the influence of the monastic culture of the region and was characterized by stability. In the deanery there were developed traditions of veneration of popular saints of the Ancient Church.

Religion and Strategic Disaster Risk Management in the Better Normal: The Case of the Pagoda sa Wawa Fluvial Festival in Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines

Religion involves expressing beliefs, performing practices, and obeying norms about what is considered sacred and worthy of worship. While some argue that religion has become irrelevant due to the widespread influence of secularism and scientific reasoning, many still find comfort in the sacred. Scientific research has shown that religion can positively impact health and safety, especially during disasters. Accordingly, religion plays a crucial role in one’s wellbeing. In the Philippines, the sound of church bells calls for parishioners to gather and celebrate, and acts as a warning system for different types of danger, such as earthquakes, typhoons, floods, raids, uprisings, and fires. Filipinos are warned to leave their houses and come to the church to take shelter. Thus, churches have been considered evacuation centers and loci for disaster risk-reduction undertakings. The proponents conducted a qualitative study investigating the disaster risk management strategies developed and implemented by St. Martin of Tours Parish Church in Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines, during the “Pagoda sa Wawa” fluvial festival, where safety measures and crowd control are essential in maintaining a prayerful and peaceful experience. The objective of the study was to investigate how festival organizers prioritize the safety of devotees after a tragedy occurred 30 years ago, which resulted in the deaths of 266 people. Furthermore, this study explores the precautionary measures taken during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, recognizing devotees’ compliance and resilience for the common good. This study utilized a tripartite method, including reviewing relevant literature, participating in a pagoda fluvial parade, and conducting semi-structured interviews. The results were presented in a format that consisted of context, content, and challenges for the sake of coherence.

The Architecture of Politics and the Politics of Architecture: A Comparative Approach to Parish Church Building and Civic Government in Late-Medieval Europe

AbstractChurch construction was one of the most challenging, and most political, tasks undertaken by medieval cities. Comparing examples from across Europe reveals profound differences, however, in both the architecture of politics and the politics of architecture; that is, how building projects were administered and how their administration shaped their socio-political significance. Although ranging across the continent, this article is centered on construction in two representative cities: Vienna and London. While the former had a small number of churches, all under the direct control of the mayor and council, the latter had over a hundred, each overseen by locally appointed officers. In Vienna, church construction was, thus, an important field of activity for the city government, which oversaw the work and celebrated its own leadership of the project; in London, it lay outside civic control and offered local opportunities for domination by wealthy families. This difference can be found across the continent, separating the large, old cities of England, northern France, Spain, and the Low Countries, which could have numerous churches, from smaller towns and cities both in these places and across the rest of central, northern, and southern Europe, which typically had a single, major parish church and only a few subordinate ones. This article considers the implications of these two contrasting models—centralized and decentralized, civic and parochial, high government and local politics—on how architectural production functioned as a field of political activity and how church building shaped local distributions and articulations of power in medieval Europe.

Kościół parafialny w Kokaninie w świetle spisów i wizytacji z przełomu XVIII i XIX stulecia

The Parish Church in Kokanin in the Light of Censuses and Visitations at the Turn of 18th and 19th Centuries The aim of the article is to present materials related to the history of the parish church in Kokanin, located near Kalisz. The materials are located in the Diocesan Archives in Włocławek and have never been published before. The presented documents come from 1790 and 1801 and present the financial condition of the parish at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Погромы и грабежи церковной собственности в начальный период Гражданской войны

The article explores the looting and pogroms of church property during the first year of the Russian Civil War. At that time, not only were monasteries plundered, but also some temples connected in one way or another with property owners became objects of pogroms. Witnesses of these events were often bewildered by the cruelty and indifference to their shrines that were demonstrated by Orthodox laity during these robberies and defeats. The perpetrators were mainly local peasants, often accompanied by soldiers. While sacrilegious acts sometimes occurred during these attacks, it is inaccurate to attribute them solely to the influence of Bolshevik agitation or anti-religious attitudes of the rioters. Peasants who committed a pogrom against a monastery or parish church could demand from a terrified priest to take less money for fulfilling their demands. Moreover, many of the clergy and the monk were local residents and the attackers knew them. Both wealthy and impoverished monasteries suffered significant losses during these attacks. At the same time, especially in urban areas, the broad masses of the people could stop the actions of the authorities directed against church property. For example, a huge number of the capital's population came to the defense of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, but pogrom sentiments still prevailed. Many, including church leaders, considered the events to be the collapse of the Slavophile doctrine of the “God-bearing people”б interpreting the population’s actions as a rebellion against the Church and a resurgence of pagan influences.

Liturgické a paraliturgické zpěvní knihy v nejstarších inventářích kostelů olomoucké diecéze

Within the framework of research on older book culture, which currently appears to be quite robust and is being carried out from the perspective of several different research disciplines, it is possible to identify certain less-explored areas or topics. This paper examines closely oldest known book inventories of diocesan churches in Moravia with an emphasis on so-called libri cantuales, books that were used for singing during the liturgy. The scope of examined inventories remains rather modest, analysed were lists of the Olomouc cathedral from the first half of the 15th century and inventories from parish churches in Boskovice and Brno from the second half of the 15th century. With a closer look, those inventories reveal besides the usual types of liturgical books also less frequented manuscripts, which contained for instance chant repertoire for the Holy Week. Detailed study of inventories brings also important clues and impulses in the field of fragmentology.

A Newly Discovered Epistle of Patriarch Hermogenes to Priests and Laity

The article is devoted to the newly found epistle of Patriarch Hermogenes addressed to the priests and laity of parish churches. Until now, information about this epistle has been limited to brief quotations in the writings of “zealots of piety” about unison chanting. The full text of the epistle has been preserved in three manuscripts. The authenticity of the epistle is confirmed by the realities reflected in it of the situation of the parish clergy in Russia in the 16th–17th centuries: the patriarch writes in detail about violations of the liturgy; concerns the question of hired priests; denounces the practice of custom liturgies. He pays special attention to the relationship between the church clergy and parishioners. Patriarch Hermogenes reproaches parish priests for their resemblance of the laity in everyday life and disregard for the rules prescribed to the priests and denounces the desire of the parishioners to influence church affairs. The Patriarch directly demands that parishioners, irrespective of their high their rank, should not interfere in the course of the church service and declares the unaccepatability of shortening the service for the sake of the everyday needs of the laity. The article argues that the epistle dates to the time of the overthrow of Vasilii Shuiskii from the throne and the beginning of the events of the first militia and proposes a hypothesis about the existence of its original in the circles close to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and the Moscow Printing House. The epistle of Patriarch Hermogenes available in all known copies and commentaries on its sources are included in the Appendix.

Sacralization of natural and cultural objects in Belarus (by the example of the well near the Pаručniki village, Biešankovičy district)

This publication, based on archival documents, examines the process of sacralization of the well near the Pаručniki village, Biešankovičy district. This case is an illustrative example of the process of emergence and functioning of sacred sites on the territory of Belarus. Archival documents give us a unique opportunity to learn many aspects that remain unknown or little-known: how sacralization took place, how the tradition of veneration was formed and developed, how the shrines functioned, who took care of them, what was the fate of the donations, what was the attitude of society, the church and the authorities. Using the case of a well near the Pаručniki village with additional materials, the author proposed a model of the emergence and existence of folk shrines: sacred precedent; verification of sacred precedent; sacralization of the object; cultural formalization of the object; legitimization of the shrine; the formation of a tradition of veneration; transformation of the shrine; the decline of the shrine and its subsequent disappearance/restoration. The appearance of the image of the cross in the frozen well on the Feast of the Epiphany in 1894 was a sacred precedent. People began to consider the water healing after repeated occurrences of images of the cross. Partially confirmed rumors of healing were the reason for a mass pilgrimage to the well. The largest number of pilgrims was recorded on Easter. Archival documents have preserved the exact list of donations that were left at the well. Mostly pilgrims brought money and linen and wool textiles. The donations were managed by the inhabitants of the village of Paručniki. The donations were later transferred to the parish church in Biešankovičy. Local residents asked the church to officially recognize the shrine, but a special commission created by the governor didn’t confirm the healing properties of the water. Official recognition of the folk shrine by the church and state authorities was an important condition for the preservation and development of the tradition of veneration of natural and cultural objects in Belarus in the second half of the 19th century. The local authorities took measures to stop the veneration of the well in Paručniki: a ban on visiting, propaganda of the idea that the water was harmful. The well was never officially recognized, and its mass veneration soon ceased. The holy well has not survived to this day, but the author localized its location. The memory of the holy spring (well) was preserved only in one family in the Pаručniki village among the descendants of one of the direct participants in the events of 1894–1895.

History of the construction and furnishing of the parish church of the Holy Spirit in Lonja

Članak govori o izgradnji i opremanju župne crkve Duha Svetoga u Lonji, mjestu smještenom uz rijeku Savu, između Siska i Jasenovca. Crkva je sagrađena 1878. – 1880. i primjer je takozvanog Rundbogenstila u arhitekturi. U nju su 1883. godine postavljeni dijelovi drvenih oltara svetog Ladislava i Blažene Djevice Marije iz zagrebačke katedrale. Novu reprezentativnu kasnohistoricističku opremu i oslik crkva je dobila između 1908. i 1921. godine.

Church Architecture in Southwestern Bulgaria in the Late 9th – Early 11th Century (Based on Archaeological Data)

This publication is devoted to the church architecture in Southwestern Bulgaria (now Blagoevgrad region) during the First Bulgarian Tsardom, in the period from the end of the 9th to the beginning of the 11th century. From the second half of the 9th century (specifically from 864) the territories of the region under consideration officially entered the borders of the medieval Bulgarian state, which coincided with the conversion to Christianity in Bulgaria (865). The studied region covers the valleys of the rivers of Struma (Middle Struma) and Mesta (Upper and Middle Mesta), which were part of the southwestern borders of the Bulgarian state in the Middle Ages. At present, three churches can be attributed to this period, all excavated through regular archaeological excavations. These are the Basilica of St. Nicholas in the town of Melnik, the single-nave church in the area of Shipotsko at the town of Bansko and the three-conchal church at the village of Kulata, Petrich municipality. In terms of their functional characteristics, these churches include an episcopal (or parish) church (“St. Nicholas” in Melnik), a cemetery church (the church in the area of Shipotsko near the town of Bansko) and a monastery church (the church at the village of Kulata). Characteristic for the first two is their construction on older cult sites – on an ancient sanctuary and an early Christian church (the church “St. Nicholas” in Melnik) and on an early Christian temple (the church in the area of Shipotsko, at the town of Bansko). The small number of excavated church buildings from the First Bulgarian Tsardom is also typical for the rest of the Bulgarian lands. Although the examples from the region are few, they show that almost all major architectural types are found here.