Catholic Church of St Ladislav in Necpaly: A Medieval Church and Former Parish Church
Site at a Glance
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Slovakia
- Primary era
- Medieval
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Habsburg, Hungarian
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page6 sections
History
The Catholic Church of St Ladislav in Necpaly, Slovakia, is an early Gothic church built in the mid-13th century. It is dedicated to Ladislaus I, a medieval Hungarian king later venerated as a saint, and is Roman Catholic.
Medieval and Reformation-era changes
The church underwent repairs in the 14th and 15th centuries. During the Reformation, a major religious movement that led to the formation of Protestant churches, it served the Evangelical Church. At the end of the 16th century, work to vault the nave displaced some wall paintings into the attic.
Parish life and later changes
Necpaly’s church formerly served as the parish church for Belá-Dulice, Žabokreky, Folkušová, Ďanová, and Blatnica as well as Necpaly. From the 1970s, the parish had no incumbent and was administered from Turčiansky Peter. On 1 February 1994, a reorganization of parishes in the Diocese of Banská Bystrica abolished the Necpaly parish and made the church a branch church, attached to and subordinate to the parish of Turčiansky Peter. The former parish territory was transferred to that parish, except for Blatnica, which went to Mošovce, and Ďanová, which went to Valča. The church is within the Turčianske Teplice deanery and the Western Province.
Major repairs and interior alterations took place in the 1980s, alongside work to reduce dampness. The church entered Slovakia’s Central List of Monuments on 26 November 1963. On 11 June 1991, its medieval murals were designated a national cultural monument within a group of wall paintings from several churches. In the early 20th century, a Gothic Madonna statue was removed and transferred to the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. After that museum was reorganized, the statue became part of the Hungarian National Gallery’s collections.
Remains
The stone church stands on an elevated terrace at the southern edge of Necpaly. It has a single nave and a tower. A cemetery surrounds the building, with a stone wall along three sides.
Interior and burial features
A sacristy, a room for preparing and storing items used in worship, was added around 1320. The nave has a barrel vault, a continuous arched ceiling. Beneath the church is a crypt, or burial chamber, where members of the Justh family, patrons of the church and parish, were buried. Its entrance was covered with concrete during 20th-century alterations, and the chamber cannot be entered.
Medieval wall paintings
Medieval murals survive in the sanctuary and attic. On the attic’s east wall, a painting of female saints is positioned to the left above the triumphal arch, the arch separating the nave from the sanctuary; a Pietà appears to its right. The arch itself bears painted heads of prophets.
