Geometry of the Late Gothic Portal in Handlová Church

Gothic architecture is one of the oldest surviving architecture in Slovakia. The Church of St Catherine of Alexandria in Handlová was built in the High Gothic period of 1360 - 1370; its main stone portal belongs to the later phase of 1502. The paper focuses on architectural features and geometry of this late gothic portal. The portal has a geometrical construction clearly based on the square of 2670 × 2670 mm. The division into thirds is applied in the details of the intersecting stone mouldings. Conclusions of the geometrical analysis suggest that the ratio of width to height of the entire portal could be close to 2 : 3 or 5 : 8 to suggest some consideration, but it was not a primary goal to attain precise ratios. The stone cutter just followed many times repeated geometrical procedure - square and the pointed arch, based on it.