Serbia has its Leaning Tower for 300 years: The Great Jubilee of the beautiful Franciscan church in Subotica (PHOTO)

A series of conferences, lectures and exhibitions are marking the three centuries since the founding of the Franciscan church and monastery of St. Michael in the center of Subotica, writes Vecernje Novosti.

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Great Jubilee of the Franciscan Church, built on the site of the former fortress, built to defend against the Turks, is having problems with the left tower, which is separated from the building due to septic tanks and soil settlement.

Leaders of the monastery were sending petitions for years to the city authorities to help solve this problem, but according to the Guardian Zdenko Gruber, "personal interest was more important than the city interest".

- There are various obstacles and the administration is slow. Since 2008, there is no solution, we were even told that the file is lost. 

- Contract on the use of septic tanks has expired three years ago, but our neighbor has an interest to take the land from us and even told us that if we give him the land, he will immediately shut down the septic tank - says Abbot Gruber.

Foto: Wikimedia/ Vukovic Ivan

Franciscans settled in the old fortress from 1470 in 1686, and in 1717 they founded Franciscan residence, they rearranged it in 1723 into church and monastery.

The construction of a new church has begun after seven years, and the monastery was built with interruptions from 1735 to 1767.

By the mid-18th century the church was in the Baroque style, and takes on today's shape and characteristics of neo-Romanticism in 1907, when the left bell tower was built, precisely the one that is leaning and which is not used anymore.

(Telegraf.co.uk / Novosti)