History
Church of St. Michael was erected in the first half of the 13th century. In the first quarter of the fifteenth century, the interior was decorated with frescoes. During the Reformation the church passed into the hands of evangelicals. In 1967 the renovation was carried out due to numerous cracks and the threat of collapse, unfortunately during this work medieval polychromes were destroyed. The building was then reinforced with buttresses.
Architecture
The church was erected as a simple, small building with a rectangular, single nave and a chancel in the form of a horseshoe apse. Its interior was most likely illuminated by small windows of semicircular finials, while a slightly more unusual cylindrical opening was pierced in the eastern wall of the apse.
Inside the church of St. Michael was originally covered with wall polychromes, placed, among others, in the apse, on the chancel arch and the northern wall of the nave. They had vivid colors and were apparently made by a traveling artist as they are unique to the region. There was an apostle in the apse, probably originally surrounded by other apostles. Under them there was a painted curtain with decorative motifs, and on the inside of the chancel arch there was an image of St. Bartholomew and a Latin inscription of dedication. On the north wall of the nave there were scenes from the legend of St. Ladislaus with the figure of the saint on horseback and a cuman. An important element of the fresco was the wide use of various decorative elements.
bibliography:
Website apsida.sk, Chmeľovec.