The St. Lawrence Cathedral and Bell Tower, Dalmatia, Croatia

5on_the_go_98765 5:00 PM Oct 28, 2022

An architectural treasure on the UNECO World Heritage list
There were four favorite parts of the cathedral for us. They were Radovan's Portal, St. Ivan's Chapel, the Baptistery, and the reliquary room. And there was also an interesting in-floor tomb that we did a little research into because it was so intriguing. As Radovan's Portal and St. Ivan's Chapel have their own TA headings, they will not be covered here. The Baptistery was built in about 1467 and there is a very interesting relief above on the wall. It depicts Jesus standing ankle-deep in the Jordan River for his baptism. It looked quite shallow and was at odds with our perception of a "river." John pours water from a cup on the head of Jesus and angels flank the side of Jesus (one of whom is holding clothing for Jesus. A dove is over the head of Jesus and the Holy Father is at the top, above the dove, looking down. The reliquary room is a museum of religious art and artifacts. The skill and precision in crafting the delicate silver and gold figurines impressed us immensely. And is the case with reliquaries, there are holy relics containing body parts of saints. These include the forearm of St. Severinoi (1646) and the hand of Bishop Orsini/Trogirski (15th century). The forearm is in a glass tube nd the hand is in a display case held by an angel. The interesting floor tomb took a little work to decipher but it the date of 1348 refers to the death of

5Steve_of_N21 5:00 PM Oct 2, 2022

I would recommend paying the entrance fee for this one.
One of the most notable features of this cathedral is the main doorway providing access to the interior of the cathedral. Yes technically you can see it from outside by peering through the iron railings but this highly decorated Romanesque Portal, which dates from 1240, is best viewed up close. Then inside the cathedral is three narrow knaves and houses some good decorative chapels such as The Chapel of St. Ivan. At the end of the central nave is the high altar dating from the 14th century which is flanked by some impressive carved wooden choir seats, dating from the 15th century. Be sure to visit the small sacristy of the Cathedral, which is used as the treasury. It houses an interesting collection of golden and silver objects, such as the large candle sticks used on ceremonial occasions, church vestments, written materials, and the coats of arms of the bishops of Trogir. But one key reason to paying the entrance fee is that it gives you access to climb the bell tower from the top of which you get excellent panoramic views over Trogir.