Henckovce, Church of All Saints

The most important landmark of the village Henckovce is the Roman Catholic church, which had been, according to scholars, probably originally dedicated to St. Stephen, the first king of the Kingdom of Hungary. This ruler from the Arpád dynasty can be found in the coat of arms of the village, and we chose him for the logo of the church. The church with a separate bell tower, built in a fortified area on the hill, is impossible to overlook from the main road, which used to lead directly below the church in the past. It is not used for liturgies anymore since 90s.

The church was built in the second half of the 13th century, it is older than the village of Henckovce itself. Originally, it belonged to the village of Hermanovce, which got later extinct. For ages, the church in Henckovce is a filial church of parish in Gemerská Poloma, it is like this up until today.

It is a typical rural church of its era: a single nave church with a quadratic chancel vaulted with a cross vault. The nave had originally a flat ceiling, which unfortunately did not survive. The church is built on a slope, it was constructed from localy sourced quarry stone. Portal to the church is situated on the North side, atypically, compared to the more common Southern side. The bell tower located North of the church is connected to the church with a roofed structure called házik. An old cemetery surrounds the church.

Two major reconstructions took place. The first one dates back to the 17th century, when the surrounding wall and the bell tower were built. The second reconstruction took place around the year 1900, after the church burnt down in fire. Bell from 1901 is preserved in the tower, it is still rung manually. The fortification around the whole church, which is allegedly the work of Hussites had originally shooting posts, remains of which survived to this day. Puplit built from stones is preserved inside the church, it is possible, that it is yet from the medieval times.

Murals

The interior of the church is painted al secco murals – so called false fresco. Unlike al fresco, which is painted in wet plaster, the al secco murals are painted on dry plaster. Murals painted using this technique have less durability.

It was originally presumed, that the murals on the northern side of the nave are Gothic, but the recent research has disproved this – they date back to the 17th century, as do the paintings in the presbytery, they are located on the same layer of plaster. The church in Henckovce is unique within whole Slovakia, because it contains figurative paintings from the time when the church belonged to Lutherans. The scene on the north side of the chancel depicts a conversation between Job and his friends. Author used Luther’s Bible from 1534 as a template. Job’s wife is also depicted. On the southern wall in the chancel, two figures are depicted, Job, and the possible donor of the murals. On the northern wall in the nave, research has uncovered fragments of a painting depicting St George fighting a dragon; to the left of this scene is a monarch, to the right we see a princess, supposedly representing the church (ecclesia), and in the background the town of Silene (in present-day Libya). The figural paintings are complemented by paintings of plant ornaments with the motifs of tulips and vines on the triumphal arch, around the windows and above the portal. The depiction of tulips is a proof of Ottoman influence. According to the municipal chronicle, we know that the murals were uncovered until the church burnt down in 1900, during the subsequent reconstruction they were covered and they stayed hidden until the 21st century.

Restoration

With the declining numbers of Catholic believers in the village, the church fell into disuse and and disrepair. Since 2010, the Gothic Route Association has been working intensively on the restoration of the church; the restoration has been financed mainly by the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic under the Renew Your House programme (Obnovme si svoj dom). As a first step, the roof truss was repaired and the asbestos roofing was replaced with shingle roofing. At the same time, a historical and monumental and archaeological research was carried out.

In August 2017, the first year of the Seven Guardians (Sedem strážcov) volunteer project took place in Henckovce, during which seven architecture and history students, enthusiasts of the Gothic Way, were actively participated in work on cleaning the church, opened the church to visitors for the first time in years and prepared a public event with concert. Photo exhibition was set up at the triforium. This project was supported by the Telekom Endowment Fund of the Pontis Foundation. In 2018, this event was followed up by its second edition, and the foundations were successfully laid for our now traditional event Gothic Route Open (Gotická cesta otvorená).

The restoration of the church is still ongoing. The church received shingle roofs on the retaining walls and wooden gutters, the south wall was insulated from against water on the outside. Thanks to the support of the Volkswagen Slovakia Foundation, a workshop was held in which part of the wall around the church was restored. As a next step, the restoration of the plaster and wall paintings in the chancel and in the nave of the church was carried out under the supervision of the restorer Petr Mlích, which was also made possible thanks to your 2% tax donations, but above all thanks to the generous support of the VÚB Bank Foundation (Nadácia VÚB banky). In the future we are planning a new ceiling for the nave of the church.

A Lutheran Church from 1798 with a valuable late Baroque altar is also standing in the village, it is still in use.

Updated in 2025 based on the lecture of Michaela Kalinová and Peter Mlích


	Architecture: gothic	Construction: 2nd half of the 13th century
	Church: Roman Catholic Churh	Patrocinium: All Saints, originally probably St. Stephen the King
	Circuit: Rožňava Circuit