Piarist Church of St. Francis Xaverský

Founded by the Jesuits in 1649, the church’s cornerstone was laid in 1653. The Jesuit, later Piarist Church of St. Francis Xaverský, was built in the early-Baroque style from 1653 – 1657, as one-nave building with side chapels with top opening emphoric oratories.
Italian builder Pietro Spazzo, together with his brother Berhard, supervised the construction. The building follows the middle European style of the two-tower Jesuit temples as shown by the St. Francis Church in Vienna. The painted murals in the church are based on the legends about St. Francis Xaverský. After a fire in 1708, Krištof Tausch, a student of a Jesuit artist Andreu dell Pozzo, produced the paintings in the late-Baroque style during 1711 – 1713. An illusive painting of the dome above the church nave belongs to the best of the Baroque arts in Slovakia. Paintings of the choir, presbytery, and altar painting of a saint, are Tausch’s work.
The monumental main altar is from 1767. B. Baumgartner made sculptural decoration of the side altars in 1723 – 1735. The monument is accessible during religious services.

 Foto: Mesto Trenčín, Daša Bezáková