Church of St. Martin in Čerín

On the medieval route Via Magna which led from Buda to Cracow there was built in the 16 th century another single-aisle early- gothic church. It can be found only 6600m northerly from the church in Zolná and 6400m south-easterly from the church in the historic village Poniky.

The church wasn built thanks to Pavol from Krtíš. It has quadratic presbytery oriented to the east. On the northern wall in the aisle there can be found original cross from the times of building the church together with precious gothic frescoes. Even though some of them were destroyed during the Second World War, we can still see half –figures of the prophets in the circular medallions from the beginning of the 15 ^th century and Christological cycle from the end of the 14 ^th and beginning of the 15 ^th centuries. On the eastern wall we can observe scenes from crucifying of the Christ, Mourning and smaller picture of suffering Christ .On the southern wall there is partially visible scene of the Annunciation and Nativity and on the northern wall we can see the Last Judgement. In the aisle there are scenes with St. Bartolomew , St. Ladislav, Imago pietatis (figure of the Christ pouring his blood into the calyx ), St. George and picture of three woman saints (Dorothy, Helen and Katherine) from the beginning of the 16 ^th century. The youngest are frescoes in the north-east angle of the aisle which come from the period around 1500. Those are scenes of Madonna the Guardian and Michael the Archangel, who weights the souls. The church is vaulted with gothic cross rib vaulting. The archaic interior of the church includes gothic baptistery from the end of the 15 ^th century and the oldest gothic stony gravestone in Slovakia. In the aisle there is also late gothic wooden painted ceiling from the years 1500 -1510. In 18 ^th century the wooden painted tribune was built on the western side of the aisle. From this period it comes also baroque main altar (dated to 1744). Wooden gothic altar from 1483 with precious table pictures was took to Budapest in 1885. It was created in the workshop of Master from Kremnica. Next to the church stands wooden bell- tower from the 17 ^th century, along the walls there are old graves from the times when people were buried near the churches and whole complex is fenced with stone wall.

The visit of this place will certainly impress you and even those “ less faithful” will leave this place charged with positive power, which stems from this place and from the heart of the local parish priest.