Remains of the Church of St Michael, Koločep

Koločep is a small island near Dubrovnik, and the Church of St Michael stood in its central part, by the main path between the villages of Donje Čelo and Gornje Čelo. Today only remains of it are left, but they still bear witness to how important this island was in the early Middle Ages. The site belongs to the City of Dubrovnik, in Dubrovnik-Neretva County.

The church originally belonged to the south Dalmatian type of single-nave domed churches, but it already showed early Romanesque features. The altar screen, assembled from fragments of ancient marble sarcophagi, depicts the Archangel Michael, and on the beam parts of an inscription survive about a "sister and queen" who had the church built. This is probably Queen Jelena. The building is therefore placed at the end of the 11th century. In the 14th century it became the church of the confraternity of the same name and received a cemetery chapel, and at the beginning of the 19th century it lost its function and was demolished to build a porch and a mortuary.

The remains are a protected cultural property, entered in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia under the code Z-6233.

Data: Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia (Ministry of Culture and Media), Open Licence; coordinates: DGU (centre of the settlement).