Saint George Church in Petrovaradin, Baroque church in Petrovaradin, Serbia.
Saint George Church is a single-nave baroque church at the foot of Petrovaradin Fortress, measuring 36.7 m long and 14.75 m wide, with a narrower apse. Its north facade, facing Strossmayer Street, has four pilasters, two niches with baroque angels and a rounded gable, topped by a bulbous bell tower moved to the front in 1736. The interior is 13.8 m high, with a vaulted ceiling and a red marble main altar completed in 1774.
Jesuits brought to Petrovaradin by Cardinal Leopold Karl von Kollonich built the church between 1701 and 1714; it was consecrated on 20 May 1714. The parish was canonically founded in 1701 and, by a decree of 13 July 1703, exempted from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Srijem and placed under the Archbishop of Esztergom. The Jesuits served it until their order was suppressed in 1773. The parish house was added in 1719.
The church is the centre of a parish of the Diocese of Srijem. Its patron, Saint George, is honoured as protector of soldiers and knights, and the main altar holds a painting of him by Vienna painter Felix Ivo Leicher, commissioned for 500 florins. The Croatian ban Josip Jelačić was baptised here on 16 October 1801.
The church stands in the Podgrađe quarter at the foot of Petrovaradin Fortress, with its main entrance on the north side, opening from Strossmayer Street toward Vladimir Nazor Street. The nave is entered by six steps, and the ground floor connects to the adjoining parish house through a doorway added in 1984 for processions.
The church holds two crypts and a bell tower moved to the front facade in 1736, which broke the harmony of the originally rear-positioned tower. The facade was then reworked in classical baroque style and decorated with statues of St Francis Xavier and St John Nepomuk.
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