St George's Cathedral – Timișoara (Temesvár)
Dominating the east side of Union Square (Piața Unirii) in Timișoara, St George's Cathedral is the most important Baroque church building in the city. It served first as the cathedral of the Diocese of Csanád, founded by King Saint Stephen, and since 1930 it has been the mother church of the Diocese of Timișoara.
After the expulsion of the Ottomans, Timișoara became the permanent seat of the Diocese of Csanád in 1738; until then the medieval Church of St George had served as the cathedral. Bishop Adalbert von Falkenstein laid the foundation stone of the new cathedral on 6 August 1736, but the Ottoman war of 1737–1739 halted construction for years. The design is attributed to the Viennese court architect Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach, although his authorship has not been proven beyond doubt.
Bishop Anton Engl von Wagrain celebrated the first Mass in the still unfinished church on 8 September 1754. The towers were completed by 1761 and most of the furnishings around 1770, and construction ended in 1773. During the Ottoman war of 1788–1790 the building served as an arsenal, and it was solemnly consecrated by Bishop László Kőszeghy on 24 April 1803. During the siege of Timișoara in 1849 many people took refuge in its crypt.
The church, built on a double-cross plan, is 55 metres long and 22 metres wide, and its towers are 35.5 metres high. The high altarpiece of St George slaying the dragon was painted in 1754 by the Viennese master Michelangelo Unterberger, while the statues are the work of the Viennese sculptor Joseph Resler. In 1856 Bishop Sándor Csajághy commissioned two neo-Gothic side altars, one dedicated to the Virgin Mary, patroness of Timișoara, and the other to St Gerard (Gellért), the first bishop of the diocese, whose relic is kept in a crystal reliquary.
The 46-stop organ was donated by Bishop Sándor Dessewffy: it was built in 1906 by the Wegenstein factory in Timișoara, modelled on the organ of the Basilica of Saint-Denis in Paris. The most comprehensive restoration in the cathedral's history began in 2019 and was completed in spring 2023; the renewed church was reconsecrated on 22 April 2023 by Bishop József Csaba Pál, at a Mass presided over by the Apostolic Nuncio, Miguel Maury Buendía.
Pilgrimage feast: the patron of the cathedral is St George the Martyr, whose feast falls on 23 April. The diocese traditionally celebrates the anniversary of the consecration on the Saturday after Divine Mercy Sunday (the Second Sunday of Easter), when pilgrim groups come from all three deaneries of the diocese.
Visiting: the cathedral stands in the centre of Timișoara, on the east side of the Baroque Union Square (Piața Unirii 12), with the Holy Trinity Column in the middle of the square. The churches of the city centre are easy to explore on foot; for Mass times, check the website of the Diocese of Timișoara.
Sources: Wikipedia · Hungarian Catholic Lexicon · Magyar Kurír – the reconsecration · Magyar Kurír – consecration anniversary
Photo: Timisoara_-_The_Dome_1754.JPG: Voytek S derivative work: Rabanus Flavus / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Photo: Chainwit. / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Town:
Timișoara (Temesvár)
