The restoration of Zagreb Cathedral, which was severely damaged by an earthquake in 2020, is making progress.
The first church services are expected to take place at Christmas, according to those responsible.
According to the IKA news agency, the rector of Zagreb University and construction expert Stjepan Lakusic emphasised that the structure of the church had been completely secured.
It is to be hoped that a Christmas service can be celebrated in the cathedral.
However, the work to completely restore the cathedral will reportedly take years.
The original pre-Romanesque building, to which Baroque elements were later added, had already been so badly damaged in an earthquake in 1880 that a new neo-Gothic-style building was erected in its place.
Walls and roof secured
As civil engineer Lakusic explained, the walls of the cathedral and the roof have now been completely secured.
The towers will be given a steel core as part of the reconstruction work, which will keep the building structure compact in the event of renewed earth movements.
The scaffolding inside the church is to be removed in the course of the year so that visitors can once again view the cathedral from the inside.
Lakusic expressed the intention to make the cathedral usable for church services by Christmas and to open up the entire interior for use in the course of next year.
Meanwhile, renovation work has also begun on Pozega Cathedral in north-east Croatia, which was also damaged in the earthquake.
The late baroque building has cracks that are now to be repaired; the building fabric is also to be secured against new earthquakes.