Story
The story of Basilica of St. Giles
Rising on the north side of Town Hall Square, the Basilica of St Giles is a masterpiece of east Slovak late Gothic architecture. Its roots go back to around 1206, when Cistercian monks from Koprzywnica in Poland founded a monastery here.
The present church was begun in the mid-14th century, when German colonists settled the area, and from 1448 the royal builder Štefan of Košice rebuilt and enlarged it. Inside waits a rare treasure: a whole series of Gothic winged altars made between 1440 and 1510, gathered around a Neo-Gothic main altar of St Giles from 1888. On Easter Monday 1878 a fire nearly burned down the entire town, and the reconstruction that followed, led by Imre Steindl and Frederick Schmulek, gave the church its Neo-Gothic furnishings and the facade you see; the facade alone took 20 years.
The tower, 76 metres high, is one of the tallest church towers in Slovakia. Pope John Paul II declared the church a basilica minor on 23 November 2000.
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More highlights in Bardejov
- Temple of Saints Peter and PaulA Greek Catholic church with Neo-Romanesque elements, built in 1901–1902 in the southern part of Bardejov's former town moat.
- Radničné námestieTown Hall Square is a public open town square in Bardejov, Slovakia. The town square, which used to be the town's medieval marketplace, is surrounded by well-preserved Gothic and Renaissance burghers’ houses as well as the basilica.
- City walls in BardejovBardejov's well-preserved defensive system of walls and bastions dating from the second half of the 14th century.
- Church of St. John the BaptistA church in the historic centre of Bardejov, part of the former Franciscan monastery complex.
- Evangelical A. C. church (Bardejov)A Neoclassical Lutheran church built in 1798–1808 on Dlhý rad street in Bardejov.
- Šariš Museum in BardejovŠariš Museum in Bardejov is a museum of the Šariš region in Bardejov, Slovakia. The museum was founded in 1903 as The Museum of Šariš County (sl. Župa). Its first exposition and object purchases were focused on natural history.