St Andrew's Basilica – Komárno (Komárom)

St Andrew's Basilica – Komárno (Komárom)

St Andrew's Basilica is the most important church of Komárno (Komárom) and one of the town's defining landmarks. It has been a minor basilica since 2018, and every year the Hungarian Catholics of southern Slovakia gather here for the Komárom Prayer Day.

The first church on the site was built by the Jesuits between 1674 and 1677, with a two-metre iron statue of St Andrew the Apostle on its tower. The fast-growing town soon needed a larger church, but part of the building erected between 1723 and 1734 collapsed in 1738. The Jesuits started again in 1748: the church was completed by 1756, and Franz Anton Maulbertsch painted its frescoes in 1760.

The great Komárom earthquake of 28 June 1763 left the church in ruins. It was rebuilt with lower towers between 1768 and 1771, and the new frescoes were painted by Johann Lucas Kracker. After the Jesuit order was dissolved in 1773, the church passed to the Benedictines of Pannonhalma. Following another earthquake in 1783, the town asked for the great bell to be rung every afternoon at three o'clock – a tradition that continues to this day.

The church burned down in the fire of 17 September 1848. It was restored with public donations and reconsecrated on 28 October 1860 by János Scitovszky, Archbishop of Esztergom. The high altar depicting St Andrew was made in Vienna between 1855 and 1860, and the slender spires seen today were added to the truncated towers in 1896. A side chapel holds Gyula Berecz's 1931 memorial to the dead of the First World War. Thanks to its excellent acoustics, the church often hosts organ competitions.

The papal decree granting the title of minor basilica was proclaimed on 22 April 2018, at the 29th Komárom Prayer Day, in the presence of Archbishop Ján Orosch of Trnava. The prayer day is held in the basilica on Good Shepherd Sunday, with prayers for priestly and religious vocations.

Visiting: the basilica stands in the centre of Komárno, on Palatínova (Nádor) Street, opposite the Danube Region Museum. It is an easy walk across the Elisabeth Bridge from Komárom on the Hungarian side.

Sources: Wikipedia · Magyar Kurír – basilica minor · Repository of Hungarian Values in Slovakia · Felvidék.ma – Komárno Day of Prayer

Photo: Andrzej Otrębski / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photo: Globetrotter19 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0