A River in Glass for Saint Peter's Co-Cathedral in Bar, Montenegro

Christ was baptized in a river. For a new church on the Adriatic coast, our studio set a river of its own country on the wall, in thousands of pieces of glass.

A new church by the sea

Bar is a port town on the Adriatic coast of Montenegro. Its Catholic archdiocese goes back to the Middle Ages.

In the modern town the archdiocese built a new church, the Co-Cathedral of Saint Peter the Apostle, red and grey, with 2 tall bell towers and a wide stair rising to its doors. Construction began in 2010, and the church was consecrated in September 2017.

The river

The idea came from the landscape itself. Near Bar runs the Željeznica, the river of Bar, which rushes between pale limestone rocks and green hills before it reaches the Adriatic at Šušanj. To the people here it is a local landmark, and its clear, fast water recalls the Jordan, the river of baptism.

In glass

In 2014 Stanisic Studio turned that river into a glass mosaic about 7 ft 8 in wide and 6 ft 7 in high, about 50 square feet. Thousands of small tiles in every shade of blue, turquoise and white follow the current, break into white foam on the stones, and spread out again below. The rocks are built of browns, golds and greens, each one outlined in dark tiles like the lead lines of a stained glass window, and above them lies a band of green hills under an orange sky.

The mosaic was laid in the studio in Sombor, Serbia, in 4 large panels, so that it could travel safely to Montenegro.

The 4 panels in the studio Nemanja Mudrić and Albert Silaði at work

On the wall

In Bar the panels went up on the wall one by one. Then came the delicate part: closing the seams where 2 panels meet, tile by tile, so that the water flows on without a break. In the photo Nemanja Mudrić works on the foam of the river, with Albert Silaði behind him.

Finished, the river sits in a frame of golden stone in a bright room of the new church.

The finished mosaic The water and the rocks

See more of our glass murals and mosaics and sacred art.

Church: Co-Cathedral of Saint Peter the Apostle, Bar, Montenegro
Work: glass river mosaic in 4 panels, about 7 ft 8 in x 6 ft 7 in
Fabrication: Stanisic Studio, Sombor, Republic of Serbia
Installation: Nemanja Mudrić and Albert Silaði
Year: 2014