Cathedral of Saint Elizabeth

Stand still for a moment on the paving stones of Main Street. Look up. A wall of grey-brown stone rises in front of you, cut into pinnacles, tracery and pointed arches. Pigeons settle on the ledges. Somewhere a tram bell rings. Above all of it, a steep roof catches the light in a pattern of coloured tiles. This is the Cathedral of Saint Elizabeth, the heart of Košice, and the largest church in Slovakia.

The building stands in the middle of the long, lens-shaped main square. The old town grew around it, so the streets curve gently on either side. Merchants once set up stalls here, in the cathedral's shadow. Today you see café tables, flower beds and people crossing on their way to work. The cathedral does not sit behind a wall or a gate. It stands in the open, part of daily life, and you can walk all the way around it in a few minutes.

The church is named for Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. She was a royal princess, born in the early thirteenth century. She married into a German noble family and became known for her care of the poor and the sick. She died very young, in her mid-twenties, and the Church declared her a saint only a few years later. For a medieval city in the Kingdom of Hungary, she was a natural patron — royal, local and deeply loved.

An older church stood on this spot first. It was damaged by fire in the fourteenth century. Work on the building you see today began in the late fourteenth century, and it continued for well over a hundred years. Builders came and went. Styles changed. Money ran short and then returned. The main structure was largely complete by the early sixteenth century. So when you look at the walls, you are looking at the work of several generations of masons.

Here is the first surprise. This cathedral is often described as the easternmost Gothic cathedral in Europe. Gothic is the medieval style of tall pointed arches, ribbed vaults and large windows. It began in France and spread east across the continent. Košice sits close to that eastern edge. Scholars see links to the great workshops of Prague and Vienna in the stonework here, so ideas travelled a long way to reach this square.

Now look at the two towers on the western front. They do not match. The north tower is tall and finished with a pointed top. The south tower is shorter, and it was never completed in the way the builders first planned. The two towers carry the names of medieval kings, Sigismund and Matthias. The uneven pair gives the front of the cathedral a slightly lopsided, very human look.

Walk to the north side of the building. Many visitors miss this, but the north portal is one of the finest parts of the cathedral. Above the doorway, a carved stone panel shows the Last Judgment. Figures rise from their graves. Some are welcomed into heaven, and others are dragged away. Medieval people entered the church past this scene every day. It was a reminder carved in stone, simple and direct, of what waited at the end of life.

Before you go inside, look up once more at the roof. The tiles are glazed in different colours and laid in a geometric pattern. They shine after rain. The cathedral went through a major restoration in the late nineteenth century, and much of what you see on the roof and in the details dates from that work. The restorers tried to return the building to a purer Gothic form, and they rebuilt parts of it heavily.

Step through the door, and the noise of the square falls away. The air is cooler. Light comes in through tall windows and falls in long bands across the floor. Columns rise and branch out into ribs that meet high above you. The stone is pale, and the space feels larger than the outside suggests. Give your eyes a minute to adjust... the details appear slowly.

At the far end stands the main altar, and this is the treasure of the cathedral. It is a Gothic winged altarpiece from the late fifteenth century, one of the largest of its kind in Europe. Its painted panels tell the story of Saint Elizabeth's life, along with scenes from the life of Christ. The panels are arranged in wings that could be opened or closed for different seasons of the church year. Stand close, and look at the faces, the clothes and the small domestic details.

Now for the second surprise. Look for the royal staircase inside the church. It is a double spiral staircase in stone, with two sets of steps that twist around each other. Two people can climb at the same time and only meet at the top. It is an elegant piece of late Gothic engineering, and it is easy to walk past without noticing it. Look for it near the south side of the church.

Below the floor lies a crypt with a very different story. Here rest the remains of Francis the Second Rákóczi, a Hungarian prince who led an uprising against Habsburg rule in the early eighteenth century. The uprising failed, and he died in exile in the Ottoman Empire. His remains were brought back and reburied here in the early twentieth century. For many Hungarians, this crypt is a place of pilgrimage, and you may see fresh flowers or ribbons in national colours.

If you have the energy, you can climb the north tower when it is open to visitors. The stairs are narrow and steep. At the top, the whole old town spreads out below you — red roofs, church spires and the long line of Main Street. Right beside the cathedral, you can also see two smaller neighbours. One is the Chapel of Saint Michael, and the other is Saint Urban's bell tower. Together they form a small medieval group in the centre of the square.

When you step back outside, stand a little distance from the main door and turn around. Look at the cathedral again, now that you know its story. See the uneven towers, the carved portal and the bright roof tiles. Listen to the voices on the square and the footsteps on the stones. People have crossed this spot for more than six centuries. Today, for a few minutes, you are one of them.