# Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos, Szentendre

The Cathedral of the Dormition of the Theotokos (Serbian Cyrillic: Саборна црква успенија пресвете Богородице, Hungarian: Belgrád-székesegyház) in Szentendre, Hungary (known as the Belgrade Cathedral as well as the Assumption Church and Theotokos Church) is the main and largest among Serbian Orthodox churches in Szentendre. The building is located within the fenced area of the episcopal palace and the Serbian Orthodox Ecclesiastical Art Museum (established in 1964), surrounded by veteran trees. The church's bell tower, located on the main façade, is 48 meters high, making it the tallest tower in Szentendre.

## History

The Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Serbs, Dalmatians, and Vlachs fleeing from the Ottoman conquest settled in Szentendre. The first larger groups of Serbs arrived in Szentendre after the fall of Belgrade in 1521, but they settled in larger numbers around 1690. 1655 source indicate that the church had a separate cemetery next to the Kecskemét Gate. During the 1690 Great Migrations of the Serbs local Serb community in the town of Szentendre increased significantly turning it into one of the major cultural, religious and political centres of the Prečani Serbs during the Ottoman rule in Serbia, especially before the town of Sremski Karlovci developed into the new major centre. In 1696, Patriarch Arsenije III Crnojević sent a request to the Buda Chamber Administration to allocate his residence to Pest, but since this request was not approved the Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Buda was established in Izbég (Szentendre).
Consecration of Dionisije Novaković as the Bishop of Buda in Szentendre, educated in what became the Kiev Theological Academy and subsequently teaching at the Latin-Slavonic school in Novi Sad, brought a new impetus to the development of the Serbian community in the town. The new bishop was influenced by Kiev Baroque and supported the construction of new churches. During his tenure, from 1749 to 1767, four more churches were built in the town, as well as several churches in other places of the Eparchy. The cathedral church was built on the site of an older church. The settlers from Belgrade built their church with stone, which is why it is to this day referred to as the Belgrade Cathedral.
The Cathedral of Szentendre was built in the period between 1756 and 1763 in Baroque style. The decorative work and furnishings were finished between 1765 and 1770. The ornate gate shows similarities to the gate of the Podmaniczky Castle in Aszód, designed by József Jung in 1767. The western part of the church was completed in 1770, and in 1777, during the tenure of Bishop Sofronije Kirilović, a bell tower was added. The masonry work was done by András Pfister, while the construction of the church garden's wall is attributed to Mihály Rombold. The decorative frames adorning the gate were created by master craftsman Márton Ginesser in 1772. In 1781, an iconostasis in the Rococo style was created by Vasilije Ostojić. The glasswork was completed in 1811 following the designs of Ferenc Fischer. The church's spire was knocked down by a storm in 1881. The interior walls were repainted in 1883.