ST. MARTIN'S CATHEDRAL (DÓM SV. MARTINA)

It is probably the best preserved and largest Gothic church in Bratislava. Thanks to its size, it has dominated the panorama of the city for centuries. In this cathedral, for almost three hundred years, the kings of Hungary were crowned during the period of the invasion of the Ottoman Empire. Among the most famous rulers crowned there were Joseph I and Maria Theresa of Austria. The cathedral was built at the beginning of the 14th century in place of an old Romanesque church dating from 1221, then rebuilt and restored many times over the years. Adjacent to the ramparts and now to the urban highway that cuts the centre in two, it could never expand eastward and its front door does not face the altar for lack of space. It is certainly not one of the most beautiful cathedrals, apart from a few Baroque sculptures by G. R. Donner dating from the 18th century. One depicts Saint Martin sharing his coat with a beggar, a second adorns the chapel of Saint John the Chaplain with mourning figures. He is also the author of a relief of the Passion and the kneeling statue of Imrich Esterházy, bishop and patron of the church. In a silver coffin overlooking the chapel altar rested St. John the Chaplain, an important saint of the Orthodox Church. In 2000, his relics were returned to the Orthodox Church of Lemessos in Cyprus, the birthplace of the saint.