Blue Church

I spent this weekend with my friend Martin who lives in Bratislava. I've been to Bratislava several times but never had much of an opportunity to really appreciate it before. Fortunately, Martin is a big history buff and can give one heck of a tour. So I finally got to see the "Blue Church".

The Church of Saint Elisabeth was built in 1907-1908 and is an Art Noveau, Hungarian Secessionist Catholic church in the eastern part of Old Town. It is decorated with bright blue majolica tiles. Majolica tile is manufactured in Modra, Western Slovakia.

The church is consecrated to Elisabeth of Thuringia. She was the daughter of Hungarian king Andrew II and whe was born in 1207 in Pressburg (now Bratislava). She was engaged to Ludwig IV when she was 4 years old and they were married when she was 13.

She was dedicated to helping the poor and the sick her entire life. She died when she was 24 and four years later she was canonized by the Pope. Today, Saint Elizabeth is the patron saint of Hesse and Thuringia in Germany, patron of charity circles, widows, orphans and the poor.

Elisabeth is best known for the legend which says that whilst she was taking bread to the poor, in secret, her husband asked her what she had in the basket. Elisabeth opened it and the bread she was taking had turned into roses. Click on the pictures to see them better.
I'm sure this church does a huge volume of weddings. Especially since it kind of looks like a wedding cake. The only bummer when we went is that it was locked so we couldn't see the inside. Oh well, that just means another visit.