The Gothic Cathedral of St. Martin in Bratislava
The Gothic Cathedral of St. Martin in Bratislava is famous as for more than 200 years Habsburg kings were crowned here. In the cathedral we find an impressive statue of St Martin and the remains of Saint John the Almoner.
But most unusual are the decorations of the choir banks in the sanctuary. On the banking arms are represented several animals, which is extremely exceptional as animals are mostly banned from churches.
The animals are made from woodcarvings and the author is Johann Hutterer (1835-1907), an Austrian who lived in Pressburg, as Bratislava was being called until 1918.
On the banking arms he depicted positive and negative animals: positive animals like the rooster, chicken, pelican, ram, lamb, cat, elephant opposed to negative ones like the monkey, fox, mouse, bear, chameleon and snake.
The fox is a symbol of the false prophet (Ezekiel 13:4). Maybe the foxes in the St. Martin Cathedral are symbolizing the Hussites, some of whose victims are believed to be burried in the cathedral. Others say that these foxes symbolize the false prophets when the cathedral became Protestant for two years in 1619.
It is exactly these lovely details which make the cathedral in Bratislava an unique monument in Europe.