The Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist is a magnificent early baroque church built by the Jesuits in the 17th century, when Trnava was the seat of the Hungarian Catholic Church after the Turks occupied Esztergom. The architecture is deliberately Italian — twin bell towers flanking a classical facade, barrel-vaulted nave, and rich interior decoration including an impressive high altar.
The cathedral is attached to what was once the University of Trnava, Slovakia's first university, founded in 1635. The whole complex — church, university buildings, and connecting cloisters — occupies a large block of the old town and represents the city's period of greatest religious and intellectual importance. The interior is in good condition and open to visitors; the frescoes and marble altarpieces are among the finest examples of baroque religious art in Slovakia.