The Benedictine Abbey

Founded by Jakub I. in Skalka, in 1224, to commemorate St. Svorad-Andrew and Beňadik.
Jakub built a monastery near the cave where St. Beňadik was slain and later a church on the rock from which his body was thrown into the Váh river.
Benedictines had their own masons who built cells for the monks, their dining hall, kitchen, pantries, workshops, and other utilities. Below were broad, tilled fields, fisheries, and stables.
An abbot who was in charge of all life in the monastery led the monks. The first known abbot in Skalka was the monk Pavel.
It is probable that also the oldest Skalka priest Wikozlaus became one of the inhabitants of the newly established monastery. It was the Nitra bishop who in his founder’s deed gave the Skalka monastery a “land to be called Skalka” together with priestly pensions and responsibilities to administer the Skalka parish.
The Bishop Jakub took a good care of the monastery’s operation: he annexed to it the villages of Uggezd, Piecho, all the fields in the property of the Skalka fortress (including the Zamarovce county, Istebník county, forests between Dolná Súča and Záblatie, extending all the way to the Drietoma brook) as well as half of the Ľuborča fortress (the Kľúčového territory). Besides this, every year he would donate:
7 pieces of oxen, 12 well-fed pieces of pork, 40 pieces of sheep, grain subsidies, wine, and 200 guilders.
It was the king Béla IV., who annexed a village called Geszte (today’s Opatová) to the abbey in 1238. The monastery grew in significance and soon became the spiritual centre of the Považie (river Váh) region.
The monks usually woke up at five in the morning. Prescribed worships would take place in the church all day long. The monks would go to rest after the closing prayer at 7pm. In their district they were free to preach the word of God, give confessions and indulgences.
The monastery’s development was interrupted by invasion of the Tartars in 1241. In late June, their northern hoards, defeated by the Czech king Václav I., massively fled to the old Hungary through the Vlársky mountain pass. They would plunder villages and towns with fire and sword, which also affected the monastery. In the years 1300-1321, life of the local people and of the monastery felt the iron fist of Matthew the Czak. The following period of a hundred years between 1321 and 1421 passed calmly, and nobody would disturb the godly life of the monks. They preached the word of god and did missionary work. In 1421 came the Hussite armies, with the rich Skalka standing in their way. The monastery would change various owners in the period of 1528 to 1545.
“A.M.D.Gl. – To greater glory of God” –were the words of the Jesuits (society of Jesus) coming to Skalka in 1665. This time signalled the beginning of Skalka’s spiritual boom. The most glorious times of Skalka owe much to the Jesuits. In 1667 they began to reconstruct the monastery and the adjoining buildings, and built a Calvary. Gradually, they rebuilt the Malá and Veľká Skalka. The Jesuits were advocates of a new style used in arts – Baroque. Besides, they were keen agriculturists. Their gardens would have the most appealing kinds of fruit that was precious and known in the region of Považie, and beyond the Morava River as well. In 1713 they built a stove to dry plums and other fruits. They even had their own breeding fruit orchards. Behind gardens were mountains where the flocks of the best sheep were bred for high quality wool. The monks had fisheries; they even built a cellar to preserve ice. It was in 1722 when the monks dug a well in front of the monastery. The Pope Clement XIV put the Jesuit order to an end on July 21, 1773. Monastery at Skalka thus lost much of its former significance and began to fall apart. Today, the only things remaining of the original monastery are the ruins.