St. George's Cathedral, Baroque cathedral in Timișoara, Romania
St. George's Cathedral is a brick Baroque church with stone and stucco ornament, built on wooden pillars in marshy ground. It is 55 m long, 22 m wide, with a 16.9 m nave and 35.5 m towers. Its nine Rococo and Baroque altars were carved by Johannes Müller, and the main altar painting by Michelangelo Unterberger shows St. George on horseback.
Construction started in 1736 following a royal order and took decades to complete, interrupted by regional conflicts. The building was finished during a period of major change in central Europe.
Liturgies are held in Romanian, Hungarian, German, Bulgarian and Croatian, reflecting the city's multi-ethnic Catholic community. The organ built in 1908 by Leopold Wegenstein is used for concerts, and the nine Rococo and Baroque altars were carved by the Viennese sculptor Johannes Müller.
Liturgies are held regularly in Romanian, Hungarian and German, and organ concerts take place thanks to the building's acoustics. Visitors should time their visit outside these services; the entrance is through the portico added by Carl Joseph Römmer.
Between 1788 and 1790, during the Austro-Turkish War, the cathedral was turned into a salt and provisions depot for the imperial army. The building was later damaged in the 1849 siege of Timișoara, when a bomb tore off the roof and citizens sheltering inside fled down into the crypt.
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