SIBENIK - St.James Cathedral - World Heritage Sites in Croatia
The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik
The most famous building in Sibenik is the Cathedral of
St. James (1431-1535), the city central church. It is the church of the Catholic
Church in Croatia, and the see of the Šibenik diocese. It is also the most
important architectural monument of the Renaissance in the entire country. Since
2000, the Cathedral has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The three
architects who succeeded one another in the construction of the Cathedral -
Francesco di Giacomo, Georgius Mathei Dalmaticus (Croatian: Juraj Dalmatinac)
and Niccolò di Giovanni Fiorentino (Croatian: Nikola Firentinac) - developed a
structure built entirely from stone and using unique construction techniques for
the vaulting and the dome of the Cathedral. The form and the decorative elements
of the Cathedral, such as a remarkable frieze decorated with 71 sculptured faces
of men, women, and children, also illustrate the successful fusion of Gothic and
Renaissance art.
The structural characteristics of the Cathedral of St James in
Šibenik make it a unique and outstanding building in which Gothic and
Renaissance forms have been successfully blended. The Cathedral of St
James is the fruitful outcome of considerable interchanges of influences
between the three culturally different regions of Northern Italy,
Dalmatia, and Tuscany in the 15th and 16th centuries. These interchanges
created the conditions for unique and outstanding solutions to the
technical and structural problems of constructing the cathedral vaulting
and dome. The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik is a unique testimony to
the transition from the Gothic to the Renaissance period in church
architecture.
From UNESCO Justification for Inscription
