Saint James the Greater Church, Kysucké Nové Mesto: A Historic Parish Church in Slovakia
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Slovakia
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Hungarian
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page9 sections
History
Saint James the Greater Church, Kysucké Nové Mesto, is a Roman Catholic parish church in Slovakia near the town’s main square, dedicated to Saint James the Greater. The church is documented from 1284. Saint James the Greater was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and is traditionally regarded as the first apostle to be martyred; the title distinguishes him from Saint James the Less. The parish belongs to the Žilina Diocese and the Kysucké Nové Mesto deanery.
Medieval origins and rebuilding
The earliest church was probably a wooden Gothic building. Gothic architecture was a medieval style associated with pointed arches, ribbed vaults, large windows, and a strong vertical emphasis. In 1591, the church burned completely together with the surrounding buildings. A replacement was then built of stone, with a vaulted interior, a stone bell tower containing four bells, and a wooden entrance vestibule. Tower clocks were recorded in 1643 and were described as a symbol of the town.
From 10 November 1665 to 1673, Lutherans controlled the church. Catholic use was later restored, and the building was progressively furnished and enlarged during the eighteenth century. A side altar dedicated to Saint John the Baptist was installed in 1710. In 1719, a richly decorated main altar with an image of Saint James was added. The image could be changed according to the liturgical calendar.
Eighteenth-century expansion
The tower was raised in 1720, and the old bells were recast into a 172-kilogram bell. It carried images of Saint James and the Virgin Mary, together with the coat of arms of the Suňog family. A two-storey rectory was also built because the earlier wooden rectory was collapsing.
A town fire on 23 May 1748 destroyed the church’s wooden entrance. It was replaced by a stone entrance, while a new southern entrance was made beside the Holy Family altar and reinforced with an added vestibule. New paving was laid in 1749. In 1750, the tower was recorded with a double onion-dome roof and a gilded cross topped by an image of Saint James. The small tower above the main altar was reconstructed in 1763, and a new organ was installed in 1789 at a cost of 500 florins.
Fire and twentieth-century reconstruction
A major fire in 1904 destroyed or severely damaged the roof timbers, bells, tower clocks, valuable paintings, the Blessed Sacrament, and other valuable objects. The bells fell through the roof and melted. The church was reconstructed in 1906 in the Neo-Romanesque style, a revival style based on the rounded arches and robust forms associated with Romanesque buildings. Architect Juraj Cigler directed the design, and builder Ján Fulda carried out the work.
The facade has not undergone major alteration since 1906. Later work included the installation of central heating, the replacement of the bells, the application of new plaster, and the installation of new copper sheeting on the tower. Slovakia registered the church as a national cultural monument on 7 June 1993.
Remains
Church and churchyard
The present church is a three-aisled stone building with a polygonal-ended presbytery, the part reserved primarily for the clergy and the principal altar. Its interior has barrel vaults with lunettes, the semicircular areas formed where a vault meets a wall. The earlier eighteenth-century church was a single-nave structure with a semicircular termination and had Prussian vaulting with transverse vault bands.
Main church
The main facade is divided by pilasters, while the rear section has buttresses recalling those of Gothic buildings. Massive oak doors form the principal entrance and hang on sturdy ornamental ironwork. Smaller doors of similar design lead into the two side aisles. The tower has grouped windows on three sides, fitted with substantial shutters and finished with semicircular arches. It now carries a heavy concrete cross, contains five bells, and rises through 92 steps. A concrete spiral staircase continues from the choir loft to the bells.
Inside, the side aisles contain wooden, hand-carved pews. The altars were made from ceramic components, chiefly because of concern about fire. Above the main altar stands a tabernacle with a tall statue of Saint James. The altar and the structure behind it incorporate Gothic elements and end in pinnacles, small pointed architectural terminations, decorated with crockets, or ornamental projections attached to their sides. A large religious painting occupies the centre, while lily, trefoil, and quatrefoil motifs are highlighted in gold.
A round window behind the main altar admits eastern light. In some places, the walls are approximately 2 metres thick, and the ceilings carry paintings of religious subjects. A sacristy, the service room where clergy prepare for worship and liturgical equipment is kept, stands on the left side of the main nave near the altar. Stairs from the sacristy lead to a pulpit that is no longer used because sound amplification is employed.
The choir loft, an elevated gallery for singers or instrumental music, is divided into several sections. It includes corbels and is supported by stepped columns without capitals. A side chapel contains a Calvary group by an unidentified Baroque artist.
Chapel of the Holy Cross
The Chapel of the Holy Cross was built in 1740 by Mikuláš Kubica. Its facade was later converted into a belfry for two bells, and a choir was added. The choir was reached from outside by wooden stairs through a doorway converted from an original window. The chapel was restored in 1940, when Ján Škorvánek repainted it and a new floor was installed.
The chapel contains a Baroque altar from the Kysuce region with areas bearing as many as five successive overpaintings. Its original altar cross was a mission cross dated 1739. One of the chapel’s two bells was later sold to the wooden church at Nesluša. The remaining death bell, donated by the founder Ján Juráček, is no longer used.
Cross, burials, and enclosure
A Baroque sandstone cross dated 1796 stands in front of the church. It was among the few elements that escaped the major fire. The churchyard is enclosed by concrete posts with wrought-iron ornamental frames filled with wire mesh.
The church’s crypt, a subterranean or enclosed burial space beneath or within a church, was historically divided into three sections. Priests and members of the Suňog family were buried in the presbytery, wealthier townspeople in the nave, and members of the Hrabovský family beneath the pews. The crypt still exists and is closed to the public. The graves of parish priest and dean Ján Lottner and parish priest Ján Pósta lie beside the church.
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