Capuchin Church of Our Lady of Lourdes

About

The Capuchin church of Our Lady of Lourdes was built from 1904 until 1929 in accordance with plans by engineers Giovanni Maria Curet and Cornelio Budinich. The modestly conceived neo-Gothic building ordered by the nuns of the Jesus Heart Institute was soon replaced by a monumentally conceived church in honour of the magical cure of the guardian of the capuchin monastery, father Bernardin Škrivanić in Lourdes. It was built as a double neo-Gothic basilica with rich polychrome art carried out in the Lombard fashion. In the beginning, in 1907, the church of the Our Lady of Sorrows was built followed by the 70 metre-long church of Our Lady of Lourdes from 1914 until 1929. The sanctuary was decorated with polychrome stained glasses, and the church’s front facades and altar plaster were decorated by the Venetian sculptor Urbano Bottasso and Rijeka carver, Antonio Marietti. Frescoes in the interior were painted by the famous Rijeka painter, Romolo Venucci. Although the 75 metre-high lighthouse was never built on the church, it became an unavoidable sign for all passengers.