early and mid 14th century A painted church for a village of ironworkersMaľovaný kostol pre dedinu železiarov

The village church was built in the early fourteenth century, and by the middle of that century its interior was being painted. What survives is a Christological cycle — the story of Christ told in rows of scenes around the walls, among them the Annunciation, the Nativity and the Last Supper. This was ordinary for Gemer, and that is exactly what makes Gemer extraordinary: dozens of plain parish churches in one small region were painted in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and enough of them survive to make this one of the densest concentrations of medieval wall painting in central Europe. The paintings were teaching aids. Most of the congregation could not read, and the wall was the book.Kostol v obci postavili začiatkom 14. storočia a v polovici toho istého storočia už maľovali jeho interiér. Zachoval sa christologický cyklus — príbeh Krista rozpovedaný v pásoch výjavov po stenách, medzi nimi Zvestovanie, Narodenie a Posledná večera. V Gemeri to bolo bežné a práve preto je Gemer výnimočný: desiatky obyčajných farských kostolov v jednom malom kraji vymaľovali v 14. a 15. storočí a zachovalo sa ich toľko, že tu je jedno z najhustejších sústredení stredovekej nástennej maľby v strednej Európe. Maľby boli učebnou pomôckou. Väčšina veriacich nevedela čítať a stena bola knihou.