Reformed church

The formation of the Reformed congregation can be dated back to the first half of the 17th century, or even earlier. In 1634-35, the Reformed already had a church – built at their own expense – which the Poor Clares of Bratislava took away. The Reformed got their church back after the Peace of Linz in 1645. At first, the congregation did not have its own pastor, it had a common pastor with the Ekecs. In 1728, Ferenc Csokonai was the pastor of the congregation. The parish became independent in 1736-37, and has been a mother parish ever since. At the time of independence, Ferenc Gönczi was the pastor of the congregation – for a short time, and then the congregation elected the scholar theologian and excellent orator – a close colleague of Antal János Valésius – Ferenc Mikolai. For a while, the denominational turmoil subsided. However, when Apácaszakállas fell into the hands of the Esterházy family, the Reformed, who were already the majority in the settlement, found themselves in a more difficult situation again. In 1725, Apácaszakállas already had a Reformed teacher. A century later, out of the 951 inhabitants of the settlement, 900 were Reformed, and in the middle of the 20th century, the congregation had 641 members. The Reformed elementary school ceased to exist after the Second World War. ; After the issuance of the Toleration Decree, the parish built its new – current – church in the middle of the village on the site of its old church, according to the chronicle of János Tóth, the preacher at the time, from 1,300,000 bricks. The single-nave church, built in the classicist style, was consecrated on the first Sunday of Advent in 1784. The five-story tower added to the main facade facing southwest was completed in 1804. The smaller of its two bells was made in 1887. The larger was taken away during World War I, but the congregation had a new large bell cast in Brno in 1923. The interior of the church, the facade and the south-east wall, a carved and painted gallery, and a carved pulpit with the same decoration on the north-west wall are decorated. The pride of the church is the red marble altar, carved in 1870. The Rieger-type, 1-manual, 7-register organ built on the gallery is not working. ; In 1995, a completely new roof and ceiling were made in the church. At that time, the inscription on the gallery was also restored. The most recent renovation work took place in 2002, when the entire interior of the church was renewed. The ground was concreted, the walls were insulated and new benches were made on the model of the old ones. In 2011, the congregation replaced windows and doors, and in 2012, the church underwent a complete exterior renovation: tower glass repair and painting, complete exterior plaster replacement and painting.