© Slovak Post, 2009 The Catholic church of St. Giles in Ilija near Banská Štiavnica was built at about the middle of the 13th century. It cannot be ruled out that it originated at a place of an older sacral building. The one-nave church with a semicircular apse is interested thanks to the western portal situated under the tower. The elaborate structure and rich decoration of the portal contrast with the overall architectural austerity of the rural building. It belongs to the group of Late-Romanesque jamb portal type. Its lintel is divided by rectangular jambs with inserted columns on both sides. Column heads are covered in ornaments which, in spite of damage, show how skilful stone-sculptors were. On the right side, there is so-called berry decoration, motif of leaves with tops folded into a berry. On the left side, the motif of two birds with one head creating the corner volute has been preserved. The upper part of the portal is created by a circular tympanum filled with a three-leave relief and lined with an archivolt. The inner archivolt is covered over by bars mutually crossed into the shape of a net. The portal of Ilija is connected with the group of monuments spread across neighbouring areas of Western Pannnonia, Lower Austria and Southern Moravia. Rich ornamental decoration is a common feature of these monuments. It is distinctive by the above-mentioned motifs: broken and crossed bars, berry heads, ornamentally stylized animal bodies. Very similar ornaments to that in Ilija have been preserved mainly in a former Premonstratensian church in Hungarian Ják and on the charnel-house in Tulln (Lower Austria). It is probable that the same group of sculptors worked at these places. In Ilija, they created a portal which has been preserved as one of the most representative examples of its kind on the territory of Slovakia. Bibiana Pomfyová