Church of St. John the Baptist in Nagymácsédon

The Roman Catholic parish of Nagymácséd was founded in 1776 by Count Ferenc Eszterházy. Its new church was built in 1783, right next to the parish, during the parish of István Ábrahámffy. It was proportional to the population of the village at that time (about 640). However, the population was constantly increasing, reaching 1,300 in the 1870s, so the building proved to be small. At the suggestion of the parish priest at the time, József Cselkó, it was decided to expand it and replace the roof, as the century-old beams were also very dilapidated. In 1879, architect János Tomaschek enlarged it with a new sanctuary and two naves. Parish priest Cselkó could no longer afford this. Instead of the old altar, a new high altar was made by the carpenter Eckhardt from Bratislava, and the organ was also ordered at that time. The sanctuary of the church, built in the classicist style, is oriented towards the east, just like the medieval ones. Its ground plan is in the shape of a cross, and the sanctuary is separated from the nave by an ornate lattice. The high altarpiece depicts the baptism of Jesus in the waters of the Jordan. The high altar originally housed the statues of Saint Elizabeth of the Árpád family, Saint Teresa of Little Hungary, Saint Joseph and Saint Margaret of Alacoque. Nowadays, only Saint Elizabeth and Saint Margaret remain. The stained glass windows behind the high altar show our Hungarian saints: King Stephen, Ladislaus, Elizabeth and Margaret. There are also two side altars in the church: the Virgin Mary altar and the cross altar. The beautiful frescoes, which were painted in 1926, during the parish of Lajos Stibló, are worth mentioning. According to the record, they are the work of a painter from Nitra named Schüle. In the dome, which is unusually large compared to those of village churches, the artist immortalized the martyrdom of John the Baptist in the form of a panorama, and on the four sides the evangelists can be seen: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The two sides of the main nave are decorated with the 14 stations of the cross in the form of beautiful reliefs. ; The interior of the church was renovated in the early 1990s. A new sacristy was also built, the pews and flooring were replaced, and central heating was introduced. The pulpit, unfortunately, fell victim to the renovation. At this time, the new mass altar was also added to the church. Its unusually large size and shape are related to the fact that it was prepared for the open-air mass on the occasion of Pope John Paul II's first visit to Slovakia. At that time, the new altar, cross, priest's and altar chairs, which were used during the papal mass, were also added to the church. The parish priest at the time, Gyula Obonya, was able to buy them with donations from the faithful. ; Two bells in the church tower call the people of Nagymácséd to prayer. The great bell was taken away during World War I, and the parish priest Lajos Szentirmay, who was serving at the time, tried to get a new one. In 1924, thanks to the faithful's willingness to sacrifice, he managed to have it brought from Sopron at great expense. The Historia Domus mentions that the customs duty almost exceeded the price of the bell.