Frescoes

Several stages of frescoes are preserved in the rotunda. The oldest wall paintings have distinct Romanesque features and may belong to the end of the 13th century when rotunda was constructed. The next wall painting in the three eastern apses was created in the time when the rotunda became a sanctuary of the temple, most likely in the 14th century. The last series of the painting was performed in the 15th century as an important content element of the nave space. It bears noticeable signs of Gothic painting, which is especially evident in the compositions 'Crucifixion of the Lord' and 'Annunciation'. Thus we can see that the development of painting stages in Horiany is quite similar to Italian artistic processes: after the Romanesque style, painting with noticeable signs of the Proto-Renaissance appears, and everything ends with Gothic.

The paintings of the drum and the dome have been studied the least. Probably, they belong to the first stage of the temple decoration. A visual inspection of the painting remains gives reason to talk about the twelve apostles painted there: faint silhouettes of the figures can be seen – two figures above each wall of the hexagonal drum.

The Horiany Rotunda presents a unique complex of architecture and painting, which reveals the development of cultural processes starting from the 13th century until today The monument is an important cultural and historical factor that connects us with important processes of the development of European culture and our history.