St.Martin’s Cathedral

St.Martin’s Cathedral

[ May 2016 ] This funny bear was found at the choir loft in St.Martin’s Cathedral in Bratislava. This cathedral is the largest in Slovakia which was built between 1311 and 1452. It is in the Gothic style and rather simple, but this one is famous as the coronation church of the Kingdom of Hungary. The famous Maria Theresa had her coronation ceremony here, too. The reason is the Kingdom moved its capital from Buda to Bratislava in 1536 out of fear of Turkish invasion. The capital went back to Buda in 1783, but coronations were held here until 1830.

By the way, 80% of Slovakian people are Christians and within that, 70% are Catholics. They are very religious people and during the communist era, they went to churches which are away from the cities so that they did not stand out. The religion was not banned, but disliked in those days, so the churchgoers were often demoted or moved to other jobs. Especially the mental labourers were moved to physical jobs.