THE CHAPEL of St Michael the Archangel (on the right, foreground) stands nearby the towering Gothic St Elisabeth's Cathedral in Košice. A cemetery stood in the chapel’s spot in the Middle Ages and the construction of the chapel was as if it was somehow connected to life-after-death, too. St Michael is supposed to carry a soul to heaven on judgement day, where after being carefully weighed on St Michael’s perfectly balanced scales, it is decided whether the soul goes to heaven or hell.
Burial services were organised in the chapel for a long time and remains of skeletons from surrounding graves were laid underneath the chapel as after the cemetery was full, new gravesites had to be made.
The chapel was renovated in 1903 and 1904 but the restoration work was a mixed success. The exterior of the building was faithfully restored with quality materials and workmanship. But the interior was redecorated in a way that, according to criticism recorded in the newspapers of that period, the chapel was overwhelmed with romanticised tendencies. In this postcard, we see how the chapel looked during the period of WWII.
