Description of the attraction
The Catholic Cathedral of St. Louis in the center of Plovdiv is recognized as one of the main cathedrals, and by the early 2000s it had become the most influential in the Catholic community in Bulgaria. It is in this cathedral that the Catholic dioceses of Sofia and Plovdiv are based. Saint Louis IX became the patron saint of the temple.
The temple was erected in the 1850s, during the reign of the vicar Andrea Canova. In general, the architectural style of the temple should be ranked as Baroque. The facade also combines elements of classicism: it is decorated with numerous statues, half-columns and decorative ornaments.
In 1931 the church was seriously damaged by fire: the carved wooden ceiling of the central nave burned down. As a result, the interior of the Cathedral of St. Louis was reconstructed. The painting in the renovated church was done by the artist Krusty Stamatov. The facade of the church was made in the neoclassical style, for which the architect Kamen Petkov was responsible. Since May 1932, the cathedral reopened to parishioners.
In 1898, a bell tower with five bells was added to the cathedral, which were cast in the German town of Bochum. They were a gift from Pope Leo XIII. In 1991, the temple received new organ pipes.
In one of the parts of the cathedral, the Bulgarian princess Maria Luisa, the grandmother of Simeon II, mother of Boris III and the first wife of Ferdinand, is buried. Maria Luiza has always been closely connected with the life of Plovdiv, helped the city's charitable organizations. In addition, the princess was a deeply religious person and maintained close ties with the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Pius IX.
