The ruins of the monastery on the hill Skalka, towering over the river Váh along the road between Trenčín part of Zamarovce and Skalka nad Váhom
The pilgrimage site with the church and ruins of an ancient monastery is considered to be the oldest in Slovakia. The history of this site is associated with the work of St. Svorad-Andrej and st. Benedict. The main pilgrimage takes place on Saturday and Sunday after 17 July, when it is the feast of St. Svorad and Benedict.The ruins of the Benedictine monastery in Veľká Skalka date back to the beginning of the 13th century. In the premises of the monastery complex there is a small church uniquely set in the cavity of the rock bed. The church was built in r. 1224 in Gothic style. In 1664 the Jesuits reconstructed the whole building and in 1717 the Chapel of st. Andrej-Svorad and Benedict was rebuilt with a new tower. In the monastery building there is an entrance to the original cave of hermits and first saints in Slovakia. From the architectural point of view, the monastery is a unique monument in spite of reconstructions and alterations, especially in the Baroque period. However, it retained its disposition and unusual connection of architecture and natural cave formations.
The church and monastery of the abbey in Veľká Skalka was founded by the Bishop of Nitra, Jakub I, in 1224, in memory of the martyrdom of St. Svorad-Andrej and Benedikt in this place. At the cave where St. was murdered. Beňadik had a monastery built and a church on the rock from which his body was thrown into Váh. The Benedictine order settles here. The Benedictines worked here until the beginning of the 16th century. The Benedictines had their masons, who built cells for monks, a common dining room, a kitchen, chambers, craft workshops and other outbuildings. Below were wide, cultivated fields, hummocks, ponds, stables. The superior of the monks was the abbot, who decided on all events in the monastery. The first abbot of Skalka, whose name we know, was the monk Pavel. Bishop Jakub took good care of the economic stand of the monastery's life: he donated to him the villages of Uggezd (Piejazd), Piecho, all the fields that belonged to the Skalan fortified settlement (there half of the fields of the Ľuborča fort (the territory of Klíč).
King Belo IV. he joined the abbey in 1238 with a village called Geszte (today's Opatová). The flourishing of the monastery was given great importance - it became the spiritual center of Považie. The development of the monastery was interrupted in 1241 by the invasion of the Tatars. At the end of June, their northern hordes defeated by the Czech King Wenceslas I rolled across the Vlára Pass to Hungary. They devastated villages and towns with fire and sword, and their actions affected the monastery. In r. 1300-1321, the hard fist of Matúš Čák fell on the life of the local people and the monastery.
In the years 1321-1421, ie for a hundred years, no one disturbed the quiet and godly life of the monks. They preached the word of God, did missions. In 1421 came the Hussite wars, which did not escape even the rich Skalka. From 1528 to 1545, the property of the monastery was in various hands.
The Jesuits came to Skalka in 1665, when the Bishop of Nitra, Ján Püsky, gave them an abbey, and since then a new spiritual flourishing has taken place. Associated with their name is the most famous time of Skalka. In 1667 they began the restoration of the monastery and adjacent buildings, they built Calvary. They gradually reconstructed Malá and Veľká Skalka. The Jesuits were the spreaders of a new artistic style - Baroque. They paid very close attention to agriculture. In the gardens they grew the most beautiful types of fruit, which was rare and known not only in the whole Považie but also outside Moravia. In 1713 they built an oven for drying plums and other fruits. They also had a nursery for fruit trees. Behind the gardens were mountains, where they kept herds of the best sheep with very high quality wool. they took care of the ponds, even built a cellar for ice. In 1772, the monks dug a well in front of the monastery. July 21, 1773 Pope Clement XIV. abolished the Jesuit order. In r. In 1755, 180 new stone steps were built, leading from the road to the monastery gate. The last major reconstruction of Skalka was in 1768, when the roof was replaced. It was only five years since the abolition of the order. The monastery on Skalka lost its significance and began to fall into disrepair.
Partial alterations to Veľká Skalka were carried out under the parish priest of Trenčín - Abbot Ľudovít Stárek in 1852-1853 and under the royal pastors: Pavel Uhrín in 1892, Ján Haver r. 1911 and Jozef Púchovský r. 1914. Larger modifications and stabilization of the building took place after 2000. In In 2011, a shelter for tourists was added to the Veľká Skalka building.
Life of St.Andrew - Svorad and St.Benedict
The oldest preserved legend about the life of our saints is the legend "The Life of the Holy Hermits Svorad-Confessor and Benedict-Martyr" by the five-church Bishop Maurus from the mid-11th century. He saw the monk Svorad as a novice in the Zobor monastery of St. Hypolitus with his own eyes and later became friends with his disciple Beňadik. A few years later, as a bishop, he learned from the abbot of Nitra, Philip, about the very strict austerity of the hermit Svorad, his death, the miracles of his intercession, and the assassination of Beňadik.
Bishop Maurus dedicates most of the legend to St. Svorad. points to his peculiar martyrdom, extraordinary self-denial and torment of the body, to the wonderful distortion of the heart. When this man retreated to hermit loneliness on Skalka, he often fasted to strengthen his spiritual life. At the time of the great 40-day fast, he was satisfied with only 40 nuts. These days as well as others, he also practiced prayers, took an ax in his hands and went to work in the forest. Once, when he was fainting when he was chopping wood up, a beautiful young man approached him, looking like an angel, and loaded him onto a cart, taking him to his cave. When the hermit recovered from his ecstasy, he confessed to his disciple Beňadik what he had experienced and swore an oath not to tell anyone about the incident until he died.
After a hard day working all day (apart from prayers, the hermits devoted themselves to teaching the surrounding people, cultivating the land and clearing the forest), Svorad lay down to rest in an oak-hollowed log, which he fenced off with thorns. In addition, he placed a wooden crown on his head, on which he hung heavy stones from four sides, so that when the sleepy head tilted to either side, it struck the stone and he immediately took over. Read more...
Shortly before his death, he retreated to the Zobor monastery. In the last moments of his life, he asked the monks present not to take him off when he was done until Abbot Philip came. And then his martyrdom was revealed. On the stripped body, they found an iron chain deeply embedded in the flesh. When they wanted to pull it down, the sound of cracking ribs could be heard loudly. After the death of his teacher, St. Benadik lived on Skalka for another three years. In 1033, robbers attacked him and demanded money. Since they found no money, they pulled him out of the cave, killed him, and threw the dead body off a rock into Vah. Since then, people have seen a large eagle sitting on the shore as if watching something. A year later, they pulled Beňadik's body out of the water intact.
The legend mentions the miracles that happened after the death of the saints: once the bandits, whose gangs were inhabited by mountain solitudes, were killed so much that they severely wounded one. When they found out that he was no longer breathing, they took him to the cave where the hermits once lived and wanted to bury him there. However, he suddenly took over and began to get up. The others got scared and ran away. The bandit called them back and said that St. Svorad had raised him to life. He no longer left the cave, he lived there as a hermit.
Another miracle happened in Nitra. There they hanged a criminal who had been miraculously freed, and then he himself came to see Abbot Philip to tell him what had happened: when he was convicted, he called on the name of the hermit Andrei, and when they raised him to the gallows, he held him with his hands. When all bystanders returned home, thinking he was dead, he untied him and released him.
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