History
St. Ladislaus’ church was built in the early Gothic style at the beginning of the second half of the 13th century. Around 1320, a sacristy was attached to the chancel from the north, and in the 15th century the interior of the church was decorated with Gothic frescoes. At the end of the 16th century, the nave received a new vault, which was lower than the original Gothic walls, so some of the frescoes were in the attic. At that time, the church was used by local Evangelicals who used the temple until 1709. Probably in the 18th century they added a wooden porch to the tower. The renovation of the church took place at the end of the 19th century and again in the years 1986-1988, when the floor was concreted, the foundations were dried and the building was repainted (some of the previously exposed medieval frescoes were also painted over).
Architecture
The church was erected on a hill dominating the village, as an early Gothic structure, aisleless with a narrower square chancel on the eastern side, sacristy on the northern side and a four-sided tower on the western side, fully integrated into the nave of the church.
Inside, the nave was separated from the chancel part by a pointed arcade, behind which a single bay of the presbytery was covered with a rib vault. Its massive, moulded ribs were fastened with a round boss and hung on corbels, two of which were in the eastern corners, and two in the western part of the northern and southern walls of the chancel.
At first, the nave was originally covered only with a wooden ceiling or an open roof truss, but its walls, like the chancel, were covered with colorful polychromes. Moreover, in the walls of the nave and the choir, numerous recesses-shelves with various tops in the form of trefoils were created.
Current state
To this day, from the gothic elements, apart from the crude block of the church, are also cross-rib vaults in the chancel and sacristy, portals to the under-tower room and sacristy, windows with traceries in the tower, and a narrow window on the eastern side of the sacristy. What’s more, inside the church you can see several niches topped with trefoils. The fresco decoration in the interior of the chancel, damaged by inept renovation works from the 20th century, has survived only in fragments. The frescoes in the attic of the nave are in much better condition.
bibliography:
Website apsida.sk, Necpaly.