The church was built in the early 17th century (between 1615 and 1618) in Renaissance style, but the chapel and the sacristy were added later, in 1671, in Baroque style.

The town commissioned Austrian builder Walent Marx to carry out the construction works but as Marx kept introducing arbitrary changes to the original design, the project was passed on to another builder from Vienna who finished it in 1640. The church was originally used by a Protestant denomination but during the process of recatholization, in 1673, the Catholics occupied the church and continued to use it. For two centuries, until the Church of the Sacred Heart was completed (1894); it functioned as a parish church. The building of the new church was necessary as the local Catholic community was growing fast and more and more members of the congregation had to stand outside the Church of St Emeric during church services due to lack of space inside.

Above the gate of the church, we can see the statue of St Emeric, prepared in 1722. The same motif appears in the interior of the church, on the baroque altarpiece painted by Stephan Dorfmeister. The artist depicted Prince Emeric (the son of King Stephen I) in an attire typically worn by Hungarian noblemen. The church cemetery served as a burial ground from the late 17th century on for local citizens