19th c.
Cathedral of St Louis
The Cathedral of St Louis is a Catholic church in central Plovdiv and an important part of the city's 19th-century religious and architectural history.
Story of the place
How to read this place
The Cathedral of St Louis is the spiritual home of Plovdiv's Catholics — an eclectic basilica that held the first organ ever installed in Bulgaria.
- Built
- 1850s
- First organ in BG
- 1861
- Belfry
- 1898
Bulgaria's Catholic cathedral
The cathedral was built in the 1850s during the time of vicar Andrea Canova, and in 1861 the first organ in Bulgaria was installed in it. It is a co-cathedral of the Diocese of Sofia and Plovdiv.
Source trail: Wikipedia — Cathedral of St Louis, Plovdiv ↗An eclectic basilica
The building is a three-nave basilica blending Neoclassicism and Neo-Baroque. The belfry was raised in 1898 with five bells cast in the German city of Bochum — a gift of Pope Leo XIII. A new 12-stop pipe organ was installed in 1991.
Source trail: Wikipedia — Cathedral of St Louis, Plovdiv ↗Fire, princesses and popes
A fire in 1931 destroyed the carved ceiling; the cathedral was rebuilt and reinaugurated on 8 May 1932 (frescoes by Krastyo Stamatov, architect Kamen Petkov). Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma, first wife of Tsar Ferdinand I, is buried here, and on 26 May 2002 Pope John Paul II visited the church.
Source trail: Wikipedia — Cathedral of St Louis, Plovdiv ↗Dating
19th c.
Source trail: Wikipedia — Cathedral of St Louis (Plovdiv) ↗Architect/builder
not identified in the current public source
Source trail: Wikipedia — Cathedral of St Louis (Plovdiv) ↗Current status
Active church; visiting and service hours should be confirmed from a current local source.
Open map ↗Public Wikidata record
Cathedral in Plovdiv, Bulgaria
- Type
- cathedral
- Status/protection
- monument
- Inception
- 1861
Traces and evidence
-
Description and historical context for Cathedral of St Louis.
Source trail: Wikipedia — Cathedral of St Louis (Plovdiv) ↗ -
Coordinates for Cathedral of St Louis.
Source trail: Wikidata — Cathedral of St Louis (Q2942391) ↗ -
Media and license for Cathedral of St Louis: File:Plovdiv, Saint Louis cathedral 2024 02.jpg.
Source trail: Wikimedia Commons — File:Plovdiv, Saint Louis cathedral 2024 02.jpg ↗
Current status
Active church; visiting and service hours should be confirmed from a current local source.
Ownership, care and institutions
The public record used here does not identify a traceable ownership or management history. This page therefore shows only verified institutional and source links.
Connected people
No people are linked in the current knowledge base.
Visit and orientation
- Coordinates
- 42.14444, 24.75250 · wikidata_coordinate
- Built/date
- 19th c.
- Architect/builder
- not identified in the current public source
Full event stream
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