St George's Parish Church, Piran
Venetian Baroque church above Piran, with a campanile modelled on the bell tower of St Mark's.
St George's stands on the terrace above the roofs of Piran and is the largest church in the town. A church existed here by the twelfth century and the present building took shape from the fourteenth, before a thorough remodelling in the first half of the seventeenth century gave it its Venetian Baroque character. The interior has seven altars, a richly painted wooden ceiling, paintings of the Venetian school and two large statues of St George and St Nicholas flanking the sanctuary.
The free-standing bell tower was completed in 1609 and rises about 46 metres; it was modelled on the campanile of St Mark's in Venice and is topped by a revolving figure of the Archangel Michael that serves as a weather vane. Visitors can climb its wooden stairs for a view over the Gulf of Trieste. Beside the church are an octagonal baptistery and a parish museum whose treasury holds a silver figure of St George on horseback and a wooden model of the church made in 1590.
Highlights
- Bell tower of 1609 modelled on the campanile of St Mark's
- Revolving Archangel Michael weather vane on the spire
- Painted wooden ceiling and Venetian school paintings
- Parish museum with the 1590 wooden model of the church
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