© Slovak Post, 2009 The south-western part of Slovakia is rich in Romanesque architectural monuments. However, only few of them have the overall form preserved. One of them is the brick one-nave church of St. Cross in Hamuliakovo. It was erected at about the middle of the 13th century, at the time of the penetration of Gothic innovations into Romanesque architecture. In Hamuliakovo such an innovation is represented by a polygonal form of the presbytery linked to the lengthwise nave of the church. Apart from that, there are only typical Romanesque forms used, such as narrow windows with semicircular endings and deeply sloped lintels, dentil and arched frieze created by overlapping semicircles on the exterior side of the presbytery, joint windows at the upper floors of the western tower, jamb portal in the buttress framing in the southern part of the nave. The rib vaulting is also missing in the interior of the presbytery where more archaic barrel vaulting can be found. The nave has got a shallow beam ceiling, as it used to be originally, in spite of the fact that today it is set a bit higher. At about the year 1300 the inner church walls were covered by painting decoration. The best preserved paintings are in the presbytery where the barrel vaulting shows an extensive central motif of Christ in the madorla surrounded by animal symbols of four evangelists – John (the eagle), Mathew (the man), Luke (the bull) and Marc (the lion). Perimeter walls of the presbytery depict figures of twelve apostles whereas inner splays of a triumphant arch show half-figures of Old Testament prophets. From the side of the nave, there is a triumphal arch covered by other paintings among which e.g. the figure of St. Catherine with her attribute – the wheel, is clearly visible. Bibiana Pomfyová