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On the Gradac hill (or towards the church - St. Michael), east of the Ston walls and salt pans, on the southern edge of the Ston field, there is Croatia's only reliably confirmed and most significant example of South Dalmatian dome construction in the area of the former Zahumlje - the Church of St. Michael. This small church stands out for its architectural, sculptural and painting features, and is also the most representative example of Ston's pre-Romanesque sacral buildings. It is dedicated to St. Michael, the heavenly warrior and protector of rulers.

Numerous researchers and archaeologists have analysed and investigated the church of St. Michael on the inside and outside, so there are different indications about the time of its creation. Nevertheless, the common point of view is that the church dates back to the 9th or the beginning of the 10th century and that it was built as a court chapel of the rulers of Zahumlje.

The church is oriented correctly, in the west-east direction. The external length is 6.30 meters, the width is 4.20 meters, while the thickness of the walls is 60 centimeters. Although the Church of St. Michael is among buildings of smaller dimensions, its width places it among the largest buildings of its type. In addition to the unusual relationship between length and width, this small church also stands out for its height of 7.40 meters, which makes it 3 meters higher than the average height of similar monuments, which expresses the verticality of the construction. The height also indicates that there was a bell tower with a separate staircase that led to a separate entrance to the bell tower, and the foundations of the vault were also found on the south side of the church. Researchers differ in their opinions as to whether the bell tower was intended during the construction of the church of St. Michael or it was only added with a later extension in the 11th century. The bell tower is also evidenced by the fresco of the founder ruler holding in his hand a model of the church with a dome and westwerk, i.e., the place of the private chapel for the rulers during the liturgy, which was most likely located inside the bell tower. Evidence that supports the researcher's claim that there was a westwerk within the church of St. Michael is her own height. Namely, the unusual height of the church suggests that the liturgy could be followed from a special room.

In the middle of the 16th century, a monastery of Dominican nuns, the so-called bijele dumni, was built next to the church, and they had the chapel rebuilt, which was dismantled during conservation work in the middle of the 20th century, when the monastery ceased to exist.

One of the first researchers, F. Radić, noted that the church was entered from a special new church that was located directly in front and which has since been removed. After the church suffered countless damages from earthquakes and wars throughout history, many restorations of this valuable church were carried out. Even now, the church is undergoing conservation, restoration and archaeological research, which was started in 1993 by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural and Natural Monuments from Dubrovnik.

Fun fact: In the vault of the church of St. Michael, many empty amphorae were built in to lighten its weight, and this is a method already used by ancient builders.