Veselé – Baroque Church and Cultural History

Veselé lies on the northeastern edge of the Trnava Hills, where they meet a spur of the lowlands along the Váh. The village is situated on the right-bank terrace of the Dudváh, 12 km southwest of Piešťany. Here, a multifaceted cultural history meets the open landscape of the lowlands along the Váh: churches, a rectory, a family chapel, memorial sites and an important bird reserve each offer a different perspective for exploring the village.

Church, Rectory and Baroque Traces

The village’s defining sacred building is the church dedicated to Saint Bartholomew. It was rebuilt as a Baroque church between 1736 and 1743. In 1925, it was enlarged and renovated by the addition of two side aisles, creating a three-nave church. The vault of the central nave features four painted biblical scenes: the Flight into Egypt, the miraculous feeding of the multitude, the Last Supper and the Expulsion of the Merchants from the Temple.

Opposite the church stands the Veselé rectory. The two-storey, elongated building has a passageway spanned by Prussian vaults. Its ground floor is a Baroque structure with a Neoclassical façade dating from the 18th century. After two fires, an upper storey and an Empire façade were added in the first half of the 19th century. At the entrance to the garden stand Baroque stone statues of Saint Florian and Saint Vendelinus from the 18th century.

A memorial plaque on the rectory commemorates a meeting of the founders of temperance societies, which took place there on 12 August 1847. The plaque itself was unveiled on 8 December 1968. The square by the church is also home to a Baroque work dating from 1763. On the north side of the church, a sandstone monument commemorates the soldiers from the village who fell in the First World War between 1914 and 1918.

Family Chapel and Remembrance Culture

In 1900, the Škublič family had a larger brick-built chapel constructed in the Gothic style at the site of their family crypt in the cemetery. The Škublič Family Chapel is dedicated to the Exaltation of the Holy Cross; Catholic Masses are occasionally held there. For visitors interested in cultural history, it complements the Baroque church with a later sacred building associated with a particular family.

The birthplace of Štefan Moyses houses an exhibition about his life and work. The building is also an example of preserved vernacular architecture from this region. Štefan Moyses was the first chairman of Matica slovenská. Thus, alongside its ecclesiastical buildings, Veselé offers a personal and architectural-historical perspective on Slovak cultural history.

Open Agricultural Landscape and Former Ťapkové

Veselé is part of the Špačinsko-nižnianske polia Special Protection Area. It is an important breeding and feeding ground for the saker falcon and other bird species of the open agricultural landscape. If you would like to combine cultural sites with views of the landscape during your trip, this natural setting is an important part of the village’s distinctive identity.

At the upper edge of the village, in the former municipality of Ťapkové, stands a wooden bell tower with a wooden roof. It houses a small bell made in Bratislava in 1821.

For the overarching travel overview: Veselé.