St Elizabeth's Cathedral (Dom Svatej Alzbety) in Kosice, Slovakia

The Cathedral of St Elisabeth is a Gothic cathedral in Košice.
It is Slovakia's largest church and one of the easternmost Gothic cathedrals in Europe.

The record of the existence of Kassa (modern day Košice), dating from 1230, is connected with the existence of the rectory church. In the process of the settlement's transformation from a rural community into a town, all its periods of successes and failures have been reflected in St Elisabeth's Cathedral.

According to historical and archaeological sources, the present-day cathedral was built on the place of an earlier church also consecrated to St Elisabeth of Hungary. It was referred to in documents of 1283 and 1290, in which the bishop of Eger Andrew II exempted Košice parish from the dean's sphere of jurisdiction.

St Elisabeth Cathedral is the largest Church in Slovakia with a total area of 1,200 square metres and capacity of more than 5000 people. It is the main church in the Košice Archdiocese. It is one of the most eastern Gothic cathedrals in Europe.

The church is 60 metres long and 36 metres wide; the height of the north tower is 59 metres. The central nave is 24 m long and aisles are 12 m long. Construction of the church influenced builders' activity in surrounding towns such as Prešov, Bardejov, Sabinov, Rožňava and it also influenced construction of other churches in Poland and Transylvania.

The Gothic Cathedral of Košice consists of the choir with a five-side chavet, five naves, two towers, a level sacristy at the north side, and two chapels and antechapel at the south side. There is a unique inside layout of the church, where the central nave and four aisles are crossed in the middle by one transept of the same height and width as the central nave which altogether create a Greek cross.

This big central space rises in the centre of the church and together with three equal exterior gables with richly decorated portals belong to the acme of medieval stone work of art in the Middle Europe. The complex of the cathedral and adjacent buildings – St Michael Chapel and Urban Tower were declared as Cultural Heritage Monuments in 1970.

In 1970, St Elisabeth Cathedral was declared a National Cultural Monument. All the profiled architectural features (pinnacles, gargoyles, gadroons) had been either destroyed by the rain water or were unmounted. The stone decoration at the north portal was very much affected by weathering. Cathedral reconstruction started again in September 1978 with detailed architectural documentation. After a short break, works started again in 1984.

In the meantime authorities started with the complex solution of Košice centrum monuments innovation, which was in 1983 declared as the biggest town monuments reservation in Slovakia. One of the factors that contributed to higher care of church was excluding motor-vehicle traffic from the main street in 1984 and tram traffic in 1986.

During the reconstruction it was decided to use a method of a maintaining the stage from the big reconstruction at the end of the 19th century. First the roof of the main and side aisles was repaired where the ceramic coloured enamel tiles were changed, but with the original pattern from the 19th century. The flèche was reconstructed and it was necessary to add 264 pieces of lead decorations.

From 1980–92 the most damaged part of the chapel and sacristy were reconstructed. The works were done by the Polish company Polskie Pracownie Konserwacji Zabytków from Vratislav. It was necessary to construct the new crown gardoons, gargoyles and pinnacles – according to the accessible documents and projects from the town's archival collection. Similarly the staircase towers were done. The gargoyles' reconstruction was done according to original Medieval patterns which are retained in the museums. This reconstruction included the interior repair of a chapel.

In 1992–95 the south façade, including windowpanes was done. The Sigimund's tower was under consistent renovation in 1995–97 when a rococo copper helmit was replaced. Cleaned and gilded plumbing decorations are originals from 1775. In 2008 reconstruction of the Rákóczi crypt was finished and in 2009 reconstruction of the most precious north portal was finished.

Today there is renovation work at the exterior of the north façade of the church and the west portal and interior of the crossed north aisle. The Matthias tower is awaiting reconstruction.

The base of the space composition is formed by the central nave with five bays which is divided by the cross aisle with one bay in axis. Apparent substitution of an idea are four subordinate spaces, inset into the ground plan of the building and inserted between the arms of main and cross aisle. In the first decades probably the enclosure walls were built and the main outline of space disposition was finished.

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