Triple medieval Romanesque apses face south rather than east at the altar end of the Church of St Quirinus, in Krk Town, Krk island, Croatia. The church was built in the 1100s and 1200s.
Krk Town, Krk island, Croatia: the three semicircular apses of the early Romanesque basilica of Saint Quirinus face south rather than the traditional Christian east, because space was strictly limited when the church was built in the 10th and 11th centuries immediately in front of the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The apses are built of locally mined white stone, pierced by round-arched windows and are surmounted by Romanesque arcades and tiled roofs. The basilica is the only medieval two-storey church in Croatia. It was once connected to the cathedral to serve as its matroneum, an area for women to attend mass, but now houses the Diocesan Museum, a valuable collection of sacred art. The lower church has a simple interior, restored in 1963 after use as a wine cellar, with square-ribbed vaults supported by rectangular piers. The upper church, entered from the cathedral bell-tower, has arcades supported by plain columns with cushion capitals. Saint Quirinus (Serbo-Croat: Sv. Kvirin), now the patron saint of Krk town, was a 4th century bishop of Siscia (modern Sisak, southeast of Zagreb). The cathedral was founded in the 5th century above the remains of thermae or baths that once served the ancient Roman city of Curicum, and one of the baths seems to have been converted into a Christian baptistery. The cathedral now has a mainly Romanesque appearance from its rebuilding in 1186-88, although reused Roman columns still stand in the nave.
Size: 2832px × 4256px
Location: Krk Town, Krk island, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Croatia.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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