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The
construction of today’s parish church started
on the 19th of April 1891. It was Fra
Ebenhard, a Trappist, who drew the plan of the
parish church, in Romanesque style. He drew it
by request of a parish priest Fr Grga
Kotromanjic who was the parish church creator.
Ebenhard is the one who also drew the plan of
the belfry. The church was built by Josip
Hofmann, a contractor from the German colony
Windthorst (Nova Topola). Fr Marijan, the
bishop, and former government of BiH also helped
the construction of the church. It was finished
before the winter, on the 30th of
November 1891. Including a wall, it is 28 metres
long and 11,60 metres wide. The wall is 8 metres
high. The new church was solemnly blessed on
Candlemas, on 2nd of February 1892.
With bishop’s permission, a dean Fr Ambroza
Radmanovic gave his blessing to the church
during the Mass concelebrated by Fr
Alojzije Misic, who later became the bishop of
the diocese of Mostar, and by Ladislav Bajic, a
clerical assistant and religious teacher in
Banja Luka in those days. Today, it is
interesting to mention the streets which the
church was surrounded by: Saviour Street,
Milicevic Street, Angel Street and Rudolf
Square.
The
belfry was built two years later: the
construction of
it started on the 31st of May
1893 and finished on the 7th of
September the same year. (In those days, the
parish church patron wasn’t celebrated on the
2nd of July but on the 31st
of May). It was built by Jakov Klaric, a
contractor from the Croatian Seaside.
There
were two altars in the church: the central one
in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a
statue of her made in Romanesque style and two
side ones. Where is a baptistry today was an
altar in the honour of St Gregory the Great and
on the opposite side there was the one in the
honour of St Antony of Padua. Both of them were
made in Gothic style. Before long the church
acquired the organ from the best organwright in
Croatia, Heferer.
The parish church was
seriously damaged in a catastrophic earthquake
in October 1969, after which it was renovated
and also altered according to II Vatican Synod.
But, describing all those happenings and also
the construction of today’s parish house
requires an extra work, so we will save it for
some other occasion. On that occasion we will
also write about the cathedral, the old and
today’s one which is in the area of this
parish and about cemetery chapels
as well.
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