Šibenik Cathedral (interlocking stone-slab vaults)
Catedral de Šibenik (bóvedas de losas de piedra encajadas)
- Date
- 1431-1536 · confidence high
- Place
- Šibenik, Croatia
- Credited to
- Juraj Dalmatinac and Niccolò di Giovanni Fiorentino
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A church built entirely of stone, without brick or timber, with vaults and a dome of carved slabs slotted between stone ribs. It adapts shipbuilding and stonemasonry techniques to a large vaulted roof.
Juraj Dalmatinac directed the works from 1441 (there are earlier phases, from 1431) and Niccolò Fiorentino finished them around 1536. The claim of a church built entirely of stone without brick or timber is the one given by UNESCO.
What it led to
- the Dalmatian Gothic-Renaissance school of stonemasonry
- an example of a self-supporting slab vault, recognised by UNESCO (2000)