To spot St. Emeric Church, just look for a striking yellow building with a towering green onion-shaped dome and a cheerful, sunlit facade standing proudly in the square with stone steps leading up to it.
Now, as you’re standing here, imagine stepping back through the centuries when things were never quite as smooth as this fresh paint suggests. The story of St. Emeric Church begins in the early 1600s when the city decided, “Let’s build a church!”-but soon found that construction projects have always had their hiccups. The first builder, a bold Austrian named Walent Marx, tried to sneak in a shorter tower and some unplanned vaulted sections-sort of like ordering a three-layer cake and getting just two with extra icing in the wrong places! Fed up, the town hired a new builder, Wolf Zehentmayer, who finally boosted the tower sky-high and finished the job in 1640.
Originally home to the Protestants, the church got a baroque makeover in 1670, and only three years later, switched sides to become Catholic. St. Emeric himself, dressed in Hungarian noble robes, proudly greets you from above the main door-he’s been watching over Kőszeg’s faithful since 1722. Inside, the art will sweep you into Hungarian history, with paintings by both Dorfmeister father and son.
If you listen carefully, you might still catch the faint echo of Croatian hymns-today, the church is home to local Croatian services. And don’t trip over the past! Old gravestones linger nearby, marking where the town’s medieval cemetery once lay. Quite a place for a walk, right?
