The Franciscan church of Our Lady of Health was built in 1936 to a design by the architect Lavoslav Horvat, on the foundations of an older church. It reopened for prayer and worship on 12 November 2026 after months of work, and the new altar is to be consecrated on 25 April 2027, the ninetieth anniversary of the church’s consecration.
At a glance
The church stands on Trg Gaje Bulata, in the Dobri quarter of Split, and belongs to the Franciscan Province of the Most Holy Redeemer, whose friary adjoins it. It was built in 1936 through the efforts of the friars and the donations of parishioners, and consecrated on the feast of St Mark, 25 April 1937. In the months of work that ended in November 2026 the whole interior was taken apart and put back: the floor, the ceiling, the windows, two historic altars and the silver frame of the image that gives the church its name.
History
The church is the work of the architect Lavoslav Horvat, and he did not build on an empty site: the 1936 church rose on the foundations of the older church that stood there before, and those foundations came back into view ninety years later, when the floor was lifted.
Nearly ninety years of use, and then the storm of May 2021, left the building badly damaged. Water came through the roof and part of the ceiling of the eastern nave collapsed, with serious damage elsewhere in the ceiling. Working with the conservation department, the friars first made the roof safe, which was the condition for planning anything else, and then cleaned the stone front and the façade.
The restoration
The eastern nave was taken back to its structure. The altar of St Joseph was dismantled in full, the plaster was stripped from the walls, and the floor was dug out to a depth of about a metre. What the work uncovered explains why it was needed: the old floor was only about four centimetres thick — two centimetres of concrete tile on roughly two centimetres of concrete — and in places the ground beneath had settled enough to leave voids a person could crawl into. Further sections of the older church’s foundations were found, investigated archaeologically, documented and protected before a new reinforced concrete slab went down over them, with waterproofing and insulation above.
The finish is a black-and-white stone floor that keeps the look the church had before. The slabs were brought from Asia Minor in Turkey; the steps between nave and sanctuary are cut from Brač stone. The altar of Our Lady of Health was also dismantled in full, restored and returned to its place in its original form, with every part kept, including the damaged ones. The silver frame of the image of Our Lady of Health, made in 1931 by the Split goldsmith Miloš Bota, was taken apart, cleaned, restored and reassembled.
The ceiling was rebuilt with all its beams: the beams were cleaned down to the reinforcement, which was then protected again, and the ceiling panels are entirely new. Acoustic panels were built into the ceiling to the project design, which a visitor cannot see. All the windows were replaced, and the new glass follows the original design and colours by the artist Ivo Dulčić, so that colours recalling the Croatian and Vatican flags run down the eastern and western walls. The newest thing in the church is a set of four niches in the side naves, made as permanent places for a crucifix and statues of the Sacred Heart, St Francis of Assisi and St Anthony of Padua. Friar Ante Branko Periša designed the new altar, ambo, tabernacle and holy water stoups, all of them cut from Brač stone quarried at Pučišća.
Practical information
- Crkva Gospe od Zdravlja, Trg G. Bulata 3, 21000 Split, Croatia
- Friary telephone 021/340 190; parish office 021/344 988
- The church reopened on 12 November 2026, at 7pm, on the first day of the novena before the solemnity of Our Lady of Health. The procession and mass were led by Friar Siniša Balajić, provincial of the Franciscan Province of the Most Holy Redeemer, with ten priests and two deacons.
- The chapel of Divine Mercy on the ground floor of the friary, restored during the works and fitted with five confessionals, remains a permanent place of prayer and confession.
- The new altar is to be consecrated on 25 April 2027, the ninetieth anniversary of the consecration of the church. Frescoes, the organ and the Stations of the Cross are still to be restored.
Getting there
The church stands about 360 metres north-west of Diocletian’s Palace, on the same square as the Croatian National Theatre, which has the address 1 Trg Gaje Bulata.
Sources
- Franciscan Province of the Most Holy Redeemer, “Split: Crkva Gospe od Zdravlja u obnovljenom ruhu”, 6 November 2026: franjevci-split.hr
- Franciscan Province of the Most Holy Redeemer, “Svečanim otvaranjem obnovljene crkve i prijenosom Gospine slike u Splitu započela devetnica Gospi od Zdravlja”, 13 November 2026: franjevci-split.hr
- Franciscan Province of the Most Holy Redeemer, “Samostan Split – Dobri” (address, telephones, friars): franjevci-split.hr
- Parish of Our Lady of Health, Split: gospa-od-zdravlja.com
- OpenStreetMap, crkva Gospe od Zdravlja, Trg Gaje Bulata: openstreetmap.org
- OpenStreetMap, Hrvatsko narodno kazalište u Splitu, 1 Trg Gaje Bulata (distance and bearing from Diocletian’s Palace computed from OpenStreetMap coordinates): openstreetmap.org
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