CHURCH OF ST. ANTHONY

A new parish church of St. Anthony was built between 1876 and 1880 when don Ante Milić was the pastor. It is a beautiful stone object with some neo-romantic elements. When examining its ground plans, it is clear that the church was built in a shape of a Latin cross. The lateral walls are decorated with hanging arches on the outside. There is a tympanum above the main entrance, three windows with semi-arches on the endings and a clock on the tympanum “breaks” the large area in the façade. There are shallow lesenes in the exterior walls. The apse is pentagonal, and a stone bell tower was constructed next to it. The sacristy is located behind the main altar.There are three windows on the arch on the church’s boat.On the church boat there are three arched windows. The roof of the boat is on one level, the presbytery on the second and the apse on the third level. The big altar is made of marble inlay. Next to a large marble tabernacle there are statues of St. Jerome and St. Nicholas, a bishop. The lateral altars are dedicated to Madonna and St. Anthony. In the niches next to the triumphal arch there are statues of Immaculate Mary and St. Anthony with a baby Jesus in his arms, who is wearing a silver crown on his head.Another element worth mentioning in the church due to its value is an old Crucifix and painting of the Way of the Cross. The church has been repaired several times so far. A major intervention on the church was done in 1966 when fra Stanko Bačić was the pastor. An altar facing the people was placed in front of the main altar. In 1994, local artists, brothers Petar and Vlado Jakelić and their cousin Andrija Jakelić decorated the church with their paintings. Petar’spainting shows Jesus’s birth and death, one of Vlado’s paintings represents the Mother of God, and another one the Mother of God above a panorama of Prugovo with a Croatian soldier. Andrija donated a painting of St. Anthony and a painting of fraRafoKalinić, a local Franciscan who was murdered in 1943. It should be pointed out that in 1936 an artist LjuboBašić decorated the ceiling of the church with his paintings. The boat of the church is 25 meters long and 11.5 meter wide. The church is surrounded with a large forest. In 1974, when fraIvanoSamardžija was the pastor, 14 chapels of the Way of the Cross were built along a fence wall.