Exploring Slovakian Countryside (Leopoldov, Nitra, and Trnava)

Altar of the village church

Day 2 Slovakia, Day 3 traveling

 

We woke up on the second day to attend mass in a village church.  Unlike American Catholics who just go to whichever church they prefer, Slovaks belong to a village parish and that’s the church they attend.  Some parishes have more than one church if there are multiple villages that are a large distance from each other because the vast majority of people walk to Mass.  

The Mass was very similar to Mass in Poland in terms of when people sit, stand, and kneel.  I was very surprised again at how I was able to follow along because it was close to Polish words.  After the Mass, Fr. Libor surprised me by introducing me to the organist and cantor, a 14 year old girl!  I never would have guessed she was that young from the organ-playing.   

Mural of Sts. Cyril and Methodius
inside the village church

After Mass, we stopped at a pond to visit with Fr. Libor’s brother who was playing ice hockey.  Seeing as it was my first time out on a frozen pond, I was a bit jumpy whenever I heard the ice creaking.  Fr. Libor thought it was quite amusing and proceeded to tell me how the ice might not be strong enough for the two of us!  Near the pond, a house has a bunch of weird zoo animals like ostriches and sheep.

Leopoldov is home to one of the largest prisons in Slovakia where the most dangerous criminals are held.  Luckily for the innocent citizens of Leopoldov, the modern prison is built inside the walls of a 14^th century fortress and nearly impossible to escape.  It has operated as a prison since the 17^th century, even serving as a place for political prisoners during communism.  Pope John Paul II beatified a priest who died in the prison under communist brutality.  

Prison walls from 14th century

The rest of the time before lunch we spent wandering through the country side.  Leopoldov is a beautiful city nestled in the flat lands of western Slovakia.  One day I hope to visit the Eastern part where you can see the mountains.  More than likely, I’ll see this mountain range on the Polish side, but I’m still planning to make a trip there.  

We walked over farm lands to a second pond that was also frozen over. However since it’s so far away from houses, people don’t use it for skating.  Fr. Libor said when he was a kid they would swim there almost every day.  The last major part of the walk was along the river bank, which was artificially split in two a while back for a water power station.  

The local swimming hole

Lunch was a delicious meal.  We had “Sunday soup”, which was a chicken broth with carrots and noodles.  The main course was a pork dish and rice.  I’m not sure what kind of spices were on the pork, but it was fantastic.  It might also have to do with the fact that I’ve never tasted fresh pork before in my life.

After dinner, the real sightseeing started.  Fr. Libor drove me to Nitra to show me some of the local churches.  He lives on the border of two dioceses, so first he showed me the diocese that he doesn’t belong to.  The cathedral is located on a hill overlooking the city.  It’s a beautiful construction that is reminiscent of a fortress, except there’s only a church not an entire castle fortification.  As beautiful as the church is, it’s unfortunately too small to hold the diocesan ordinations so those are held in other churches in the diocese.

Cathedral on the hill

Nitra also had a pretty interesting museum about the diocese.  There a bunch of different artifacts from bishops over the years, including some rather ornate miters.   The displays all had English translations, which was pretty nice for me, although Fr. Libor translated all the texts that weren’t in English and provided a really great monologue of the history of the Catholic Church in Slovakia.  Archaeologists recently discovered some evidence that Sts. Cyril and Methodius might not have been the first missionaries to the Slovakian region, which would change the history of the Catholic Church in the area.  

When we were done in Nitra, we drove to city #2, Trnava, the seat of Fr. Libor’s diocese (and Fr. Ben, my pastor at St. Cyril’s!).  There are a ton of churches in Trnavaand it’s nicknamed “Little Rome.”  There are many different religious orders operating in the city, which is why there are so many churches in a small area.  We were able to visit many of them, but I think my favorite was the Jesuit Church.  Fr. Libor also showed me the bishop’s palace, which was a gigantic building spanning almost the entire block.  It was kind of surprising to me that the bishop lived in such a large place.

Altar of the Cathedral in Nitra

Upon returning home, Fr. Libor got out a good map of Vienna and helped me figure out how to get from the train station to my hostel.  He was a wealth of sightseeing advice and equipped me with a lengthy list of interesting things to see.  Hopefully I can see almost all of them during my time in Vienna!  I’ll be packing in quite a bit in just two short days.