Košice.sk

Ing. František Knapík

Franciscan Church

It is the second oldest preserved church in Košice. Originally, it was built for Franciscans by the family from Perín - the Perényi family - after the fire in 1333. Its preserved Gothic elements document a beautiful plastic Gothic decoration. The relievos above the entrance, stone seats close to the altar and vaults above the sanctuary and former chancel (sacred to Saint Nicholas) are original. After the fire in 1556, it served as a military store-house and the sanctuary as a bishop cathedral of the bishop of Eger settled here during the occupation of Eger by Turks (1597-1671). The Franciscans were closely packed in a corner of the original monastery around the chapel of Saint Anthony of Padua ans that's why after getting the property back again and being able to repair it from the sorrowful situation left by the army, the church received a new consecration to Saint Anthony of Padua. When Košice was appointed the bishopric in 1804, the renovated Franciscan monastery became a seminary, the church a seminary church but it also served for Franciscans and even Greek-Catholics until they built a church of their own.

The interior is barocized, the main altar has a valuable baldachin structure. The statue of Saint Carlo of Boromeo, a patron of the seminary, is on its copula. The altar piece of Madonna with Saint Anthony is by the Viennese painter Michal Unterberger. Almost all the altars, the pulpit and other moveables are from years 1760 -1770.
The epitaph of the field marshal F. Renaud from 1740 by G. R. Donner is especially valuable. The founder of the first University of Košice, the bishop of Eger, Benedikt Kisdy, was burried in the crypt under the main altar. All the crypts were plundered by soldiers after the World War II.