Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, Zagreb

The Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Lord (Храм преображења Господњег) is a Serbian Orthodox cathedral located on the Petar Preradović Square in Zagreb, Croatia. It was built in 1865–66 according to designs of architect Franjo Klein. It is ecclesiastically part of the Metropolitanate of Zagreb and Ljubljana and is known as the Zagreb Orthodox Cathedral. Due to 2020 Zagreb earthquake the Cathedral went to re-construction due to mayor damages that occurred.

Old St. Marguerite church
A wooden Catholic church dedicated to St. Marguerite was located on the place of the modern day cathedral in the 14th century. The church was restored in the 16th and 17th century. Between 1372 and the 19th century, the annual St. Marguerite fair was organized on the square. In the 18th century the church was burned down in a fire and in its place a new one was built with bulbous steeple. Duding the Josephinism period the state implemented significant reforms that affected life of religious communities. In 1781 Patent of Toleration extended religious freedom to non-Catholic Christians living in Habsburg lands and was followed by 1782 Edict of Tolerance. By city government decision the old church was offered at auction and sold to the Zagreb Croatian Orthodox Parish for 4,000 florins. In 1848, during Revolutions of 1848, the Orthodox Parish added the suffix Serbian in its name since by that time the Serbs significantly outnumbered local Greeks and Aromanians.

Construction of new church
In 1861 initiative was launched to build new church on the site of a dilapidated old St. Marguerite church. Project was awarded to the architect Franjo Klein. In the same period when the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral was built, Zagreb Synagogue was also built according to the Franjo Klein project. Church was completed on 21 October 1866, and synagogue on 27 September 1867.

In 1897, after completion of urbanization of square south to the church, architect Hermann Bollé proposed plan of monumental reorganization of church. This plan was never implemented, but the same architect developed a plan for restoration of bell tower in its modern-day shape in 1899, and in 1913 based on his plan façade was restored.

World War II
During World War II collaborationist Croatian Ustaše regime of Independent State of Croatia seized all property Serbian Orthodox Church and determined that the cathedral would be the central church of Croatian Orthodox Church, which was a part of the widespread Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia.

Architecture


The iconostasis was placed in front of the altar in 1795. This iconostasis was donated to Church of St. George in Varaždin in 1884 when the current iconostasis was built. The iconostasis of the Orthodox Cathedral comprises a total of 34 icons and 4 free-standing walnut pillars. The Metropolitan Jovan Pavlović, who reigned from 1982 to 2014 was buried in the cathedral after his death in 2014.