FRANJEVAČKE GRAĐEVINE U BEOGRADU DO 1739. GODINE
FRANSISCAN BUILDINGS IN BELGRADE UNTILL YEAR 1739

Summary/Abstract: The Franciscans came to Belgrade as early as in 1280 when they established their monastery within the Belgrade fortress. This monastery was, after the defense of Belgrade from the Ottoman Turks in 1456, reestablished by St. John Capistran. In the year 1521 when Belgrade fell under the Turks, they demolished the monastery and exiled the Franciscans. The Franciscan church was readjusted to a mosque. During the following period in which Belgrade was under Turkish rule the activity of the Franciscan order was quite limited, so they held just a chapel in the part of Belgrade called Dorcol. Duke Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria conquered Belgrade in 1688 and that was the opportunity for the Franciscans to ask for permission to build the new monastery in the exact place where the old one used to be. However, that wasn’t possible because of spreading of the space which belonged to the fortress. That was the reason why Leopold I gave them a mosque with a connected room which was situated in the middle of the Danubian suburb. The Franciscans temporarily readjusted the mosque into the Church of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, while the connected room was readjusted to the Chapel of St. Anthony of Padua. The building of a Franciscan monastery also began at that time. The whole activity came to an end in 1690 after another Turkish conquest of Belgrade. The building of catholic churches and monasteries was at its best in the period of Austrian rule between 1717 and 1739. At that time, among other catholic orders, the Franciscans were also building their new church and monastery, giving the Belgrade an imposingly baroque image. After the defeat of the Austrian army in 1739, the Franciscans retreated to Zemun. They will come to Belgrade again when the political situation allows it, which happened in 1920s. At that time they established the Franciscan monastery and the Church of St. Anthony of Padua, which was the work of the famous Slovenian architect, Jože Plečnik.

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