The Saint Michael Church () is a

Gothic style Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque ar ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

Košice Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

.St Michael Chapel
from ''Visit Kosice'' retrieved 19 June 2013 Originally a chapel (), the building became officially a church after its reconstruction in 2006.

History

The Saint Michael Chapel was probably erected in the first half of the 14th century. It was built as a cemetery chapel inside the

town wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as curtain walls with to ...

s in the place of the present-day park at Hlavná ulica (English: '' Main Street''). The lower part of the chapel was initially an

ossarium An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years th ...

, the upper one served for offices for the deceased. The chapel served as a Slovak

whereas the Cathedral of Saint Elisabeth was a German and Hungarian church.Kosice
from ''Infoglobe'' retrieved 19 June 2013 During the rebuilding in the years 1902–1904, they pulled down the northern

aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...

(it was erected in 1508) and bricked 17 old

gravestones A gravestone or tombstone is a marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. A marker set at the head of the grave may be called a headstone. An especially old or elaborate stone slab may be called a funeral stele, stela, or slab. The us ...

(from the 14th century until the 17th century) into the exterior walls of the chapel to save them from destruction.Slovakia Travel
retrieved 19 June 2013 Bad condition of the building was the reason of the complex reconstruction in the years 1998–2006. The reconstructed chapel was

consecrated Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

on 22 January 2006 by Košice's

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

Alojz Tkáč Monsignor Alojz Tkáč (2 March 1934 – 23 May 2023) was a Slovak Roman Catholic prelate. He was the bishop of Košice from 1990 to 1995, the first archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Košice from 1995 to 2010 and archbishop emer ...

. After the construction was finished, the chapel has officially become a church.

Interior

The patron of the dead,

Saint Michael Michael, also called Saint Michael the Archangel, Archangel Michael and Saint Michael the Taxiarch is an archangel and the warrior of God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in third- and second- ...

the

Archangel Archangels () are the second lowest rank of angel in the Catholic hierarchy of angels, based on and put forward by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the 5th or 6th century in his book ''De Coelesti Hierarchia'' (''On the Celestial Hierarchy'') ...

, trampling the

Devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...

, is shown on the facade. The archangels

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

and

Gabriel In the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), Gabriel ( ) is an archangel with the power to announce God's will to mankind, as the messenger of God. He is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Quran. Many Chris ...

are on his sides. In the interior, there is a nice stone

tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle (), also known as the Tent of the Congregation (, also Tent of Meeting), was the portable earthly dwelling of God used by the Israelites from the Exodus until the conquest of Canaan. Moses was instru ...

, the ornamental sculpture

Ecce Homo ''Ecce homo'' (, , ; "behold the man") are the Latin words used by Pontius Pilate in the Vulgate translation of the Gospel of John, when he presents a scourged Jesus, bound and crowned with thorns, to a hostile crowd shortly before his crucif ...

and rests of wall paintings from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. The first municipal coat of arms in Europe (dated back to 1369) is situated above the door leading to the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

Gallery

Kaplnka sv. Michala.jpg, Kaplnka sv. Michala 1.jpg, Kaplnka sv. Michala 2.jpg, Kaplnka sv. Michala v Košiciach.jpg,

References

{{Authority control Churches in Košice Roman Catholic chapels in Slovakia 14th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Slovakia Gothic architecture in Slovakia

History

Interior

Gallery

See also

References