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The Cathedral of St. James (Croatian: Katedrala sv. Jakova) or simply Šibenik Cathedral is a triple-nave Catholic cathedral with three apses and a dome (32 m high inside) in Šibenik, Croatia. It is the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Šibenik. It is often known as "St. Jacob's", because Croatian, like many other languages, uses the same name for both "James" and "Jacob". It is dedicated to Saint James the Great.
It was built entirely from stone between 1431 and 1536, the cathedral was designed by several prominent architects, most notably Juraj Dalmatinac and Nikola Firentinac, whose innovative construction techniques shaped its unique appearance. The cathedral is famous for its monumental stone dome, richly decorated portals, and the remarkable frieze of carved human heads surrounding the apses, which are considered to be individual portraits of people from Dalmatia at the time.
It is the most important architectural monument of the Renaissance in the entire country, and one of the finest examples of Gothic and Renaissance architecture on the Adriatic coast. Because of its exceptional cultural, historical, and artistic significance, the Cathedral of St. James was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000.
Šibenik was first mentioned in written records in 1066, in a document issued by the Croatian king Petar Krešimir IV, who ruled from 1058 to 1074. Unlike most major coastal cities in Croatia, Šibenik was not founded during ancient times, but emerged nearly a thousand years later.
The 13th century marked a turning point in the city’s history. During this period, Šibenik fought to rise from the status of a villa - a settlement or town, to that of a civitas, meaning a fully recognized city with political independence and freedoms already enjoyed by neighboring urban centers. An important step forward came in 1251, when King Bela IV confirmed a charter granting the town broad autonomy. However, complete recognition also required ecclesiastical independence. This was finally achieved on May 1, 1298, when Pope Boniface VIII authorized the establishment of a bishopric in Šibenik, officially granting it city status.
The following century brought rapid growth and prosperity to the independent city and its diocese. By the beginning of the 15th century, this development inspired plans for the construction of a new cathedral. The existing Church of St. James, which had served as the cathedral until then, had become too small and unsuitable for the needs of the growing community. At the initiative of Bishop Bogdan Pulšić, a council of local citizens decided on April 10, 1402, to build a new cathedral that would be “wider, taller, and grander.”
The construction of the cathedral marked the symbolic culmination of Šibenik’s centuries-long ambition to separate from the Diocese of Trogir and achieve greater civic and religious independence through its own cathedral church. It was built on the southern side of the city’s main medieval square, on the site of the former Romanesque Church of St. James. During the first decade, Venetian Gothic architects collaborated with local stonemasons Andrija Budčić and Budiša Statčić. In that period, the northern and southern walls, the lower Gothic section of the façade, and both church portals were completed.
Shortly after the city authorities secured funding and started preparing building materials, conflict broke out with Venice. As a result, part of the stone intended for the cathedral was instead used to strengthen the city’s fortifications. The conflict lasted from 1409 to 1412, but stability did not fully return for another decade. Only in 1424 did preparations for the cathedral resume and stone production begin again. Finally, in May 1430, Bishop Bogdan Pulšić and two members of the Tavelić noble family signed a one-year agreement with the Venetian master builder Francesco di Giacomo, also known as Fran Jakovljev, to oversee and direct the construction of the new cathedral. It is believed that during that year Francesco’s task was to prepare the architectural design and detailed construction plans, allowing local builders and stonemasons to continue and complete the project after his departure. The foundation stone of the new cathedral was laid on April 9, 1431.
The first phase of construction lasted from 1431 to 1441. During this period, several master builders worked on the cathedral according to the original plans created by Francesco di Giacomo. Among the craftsmen involved were the Venetian masters Lorenzo Piucino and Antonio di Pier Paolo Busato, as well as the Šibenik stonemasons Andrija Budčić and Grubiša Slafčić. Stone used for the construction was transported from the islands of Korčula, Susak, Brač, Rab, and Krk.
On April 23, 1441, the Šibenik noble council concluded that large sums of money had already been spent, yet serious construction mistakes had been made, some of which required parts of the structure to be demolished and rebuilt. A special committee was formed to resolve these issues. A delegation was immediately sent to Venice to request permission to remove offices and stables located in front of the rector’s palace and to create a new street in their place. Permission was granted, but even more important was the fact that the delegation returned with a new architect. Following the discovery of flaws in the earlier construction work, the cathedral supervisors signed a contract with a new chief architect and master builder - Juraj Dalmatinac, the greatest contribution to the history of the cathedral. In the presence of Duke Jakov Donat, the city council, municipal official Nikolini, and two witnesses, an agreement was concluded with “the prudent man, Master Juraj, stonemason, son of the late Matej from Zadar, resident of Venice, presently in Šibenik.” Juraj committed himself, as chief master of the Cathedral of St. James, to direct and supervise all construction works, provide instructions, measurements, and technical guidance, while also personally working as both builder and stonemason. His first contract in 1441 was concluded for a period of 6 years to build just a simple church, but another contract of 10 years followed the first one in 1446. His responsibilities additionally included traveling to quarries, organizing the extraction and shaping of stone, and supervising its transport and delivery.
Giorgio da Sebenico (lit. 'George of Sebenico') or Juraj Dalmatinac led the construction of the cathedral from 1441 until his death in 1473. Juraj Dalmatinac, who expanded the project and continued to build according to the characteristics of the Renaissance. The cathedral was built only of stone without any binding material. Throughout those decades, he worked alongside numerous highly skilled assistants, collaborators, and apprentices, among whom the most notable were Andrija Aleši and Ivan Pribislavić. Many of them later collaborated with him on other important architectural projects as well. Juraj Dalmatinac expanded the original design by adding a dome and, enlarged the cathedral with a side nave and apses, so that the ground plan of the cathedral was in the shape of a cross, built the presbytery, sanctuary and his masterpiece - the baptistery. using an innovative assembly technique with large stone slabs, constructed the lower sections of the sanctuary, baptistery, and sacristy. In doing so, he introduced the principle of unified stone construction, which was later continued by his successors. At the same time, the previously begun longitudinal walls of the church were being completed up to the height of the cornice of the suspended arches, while inside, according to Master Juraj’s new design, the arcades of the central nave were being raised together with the vaulted side chapels up to the same level.
When construction was interrupted in 1455, the high substructures of the polygonal sanctuary had been built up to the level of the cornice with sculpted heads, that is, up to the level of the presbytery floor in the interior. He further enriched his life’s masterpiece with remarkable sculptural works in the baptistery and along the apse frieze, bringing some of the earliest influences of Renaissance art into Dalmatia.
The investors considered that too little for the money spent, so Juraj Dalmatinac altered the plan: With tremendous skill, he combined architectural and decorative elements to create a unified entity. Juraj Dalmatinac combined several artistic elements in the ground plan: the Lion Gate was inspired by the Abbey of San Leonardo di Siponto (Puglia), the central nave by Trogir Cathedral, an eagle over the main entrance as the John the Evangelist's symbol, the St Mark's Basilica as one side nave and the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople as the other side nave. He constructed the western main portal, the northern portal (The Lion Gate) and the first chapel. The western main portal was decorated by Bonino da Milano, first master mason, with statues of Christ and the twelve apostles. The current bronze door was created in 1967 by the Šibenik sculptor Grga Antunac.
The motif of the northern portal, called the Lion Gate, are Adam and Eve standing on two lions, which is also seen at the Trogir Cathedral, but here Adam and Eve are on columns over the lions. These statues, together with St. Jacob and St. Peter, are the work of Juraj Dalmatinac. The statue of Eve draws the attention of onlookers as she has a belly button, while, according to the Bible, she was conceived from a rib of Adam. The bronze doors were made in 1967 by the Šibenik sculptor Grga Antunac. The coats of arms of two bishops and of the procurator of then-church of St. Saviour in Šibenik were placed over the Lion Gate.
The two Renaissance putti at the northern end of the cathedral bear an inscription of the consecration in 1443 of the cathedral. Under their feet is his only remaining signature: "Hoc opus cuvarum fecit magister Georgius Matthei Dalmaticus". He also designed the baptistery in the 1440s. He built it next to the southern apse in the form of a quatrefoil. The upper part is covered with lacelike sculptures, the first Renaissance sculptural work in Croatia. The flat niches are vaulted with corrugated seashells of St. James. On the baldachins between them hold two statues: King David and the prophet Simon. The vault ribs end in the keystone representing the Father God, surrounded by angels and the dove (symbol of the Holy Ghost). The baptismal font, made from reddish breccias, is supported by three angels.
The apses are decorated on the outside with various sculptural decorations, including 74 small Renaissance portraits immortalising important contemporaries and figures who had for some reason particularly impressed the architect or that he deemed to tight to help foot the bill for the cathedral's construction. Some of these heads on the facade have a damaged nose, probably due to vandalism. Indeed, until Justinian II this was the expression to discredit the reputation of someone, and so it was necessary that this individual remained anonymous.
Juraj Dalmatinac worked probably on the cathedral up to his death in 1475 and certainly until 1473.
Between 1475 and 1505 the work was overseen by Tuscan master Niccolò di Giovanni Fiorentino (Nicola Firentinac), from the Donatello school of sculpture who developed as a sculptor and builder in Dalmatia. When Firentinac arrived, he found the cathedral completed up to the height of the enclosing walls of the sanctuary and the side aisles, but the parts were mutually uncoordinated and structurally disconnected, with numerous irregularities in the ground plan of the entire choir area (including thinned and broken wall sections of the sanctuary and transept in the interior). By 1477, Nikola Firentinac had produced a design for the completion of the entire upper structure of the cathedral and began vaulting the side chapels of the sanctuary. By transforming the earlier concept of a three-aisled basilica with an open roof into a church covered with barrel vaults, he first levelled the heights of the sanctuary and the three-aisled nave, and then, using a strong all’antica cornice, clearly separated the earlier construction from his new upper design.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Šibenik Cathedral”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.