Levice is not dominated by its castle alone. Although it is hard to overlook among the modern buildings, the town has far more architecturally interesting features. In the past, many of them were a favourite Sunday promenade for locals and visitors alike, and they remain an integral part of the town’s character to this day. Which ones are they? Join us in discovering the authentic atmosphere of the Levice Korzo. You can wander along it in winter too …
(This article draws largely on information and historical facts from the publication: Švoliková M. et al., Monografia mesta Levice [Monograph of the Town of Levice], 2016)
“I am sitting in a café, looking at pretty girls. I am sitting on the korzo in Levice,” a visitor from Budapest wrote on a period postcard in 1910. It is clear that locals and visitors alike enjoyed the charms of Levice as far back as the days of Austria-Hungary. In the meantime the town has changed its face, owing to the political systems that succeeded one another over the last century, as well as to the various building styles and architects who shaped its development.
The historic centre seems to have been “lost for a while”. Yet it is precisely the old town and its beauties that we will rediscover together. On a walk along the Levice Korzo we will combine the chance to enjoy historic architecture, technical rarities that were modern for their time, and a panorama of the town from the lookout tower on Levice Calvary. The stroll through town is just about to begin.
The Old Korzo
Local patriot, collector of postcards and photographs from the history of Levice and later also deputy mayor of Levice, Csaba Tolnai, sadly no longer with us, described the term korzo as follows:
“The korzo was once a space for pedestrians stretching from the building of the national cultural monument Hotel Lev to the building of today’s so-called Burgher House, likewise a national cultural monument, at Námestie hrdinov 7/8, with its former confectionery and today a quality café. At the end of the 19th century this space was converted into a pedestrian zone. It was the most elegant and most showy part of the main square, which came alive every evening and on public holidays also in the morning.”
We will widen our stroll through town a little and begin on Námestie hrdinov (Heroes’ Square). Several buildings worth noticing surround it. The first is the town hall itself, today’s Municipal Office. It was built in 1902 as the Town House, with an additional floor added in 1927. This is linked to a technology that was unique for its time, in which the roof was lifted and another storey was built beneath it without dismantling the roof truss. Most buildings on Námestie hrdinov are the masterpiece of the well-known Levice architect and builder Rudolf Cibulka. Among the curiosities of the Municipal Office is a carillon, which plays well-known melodies from the building every full hour.
An integral part of the Levice Korzo is Hotel Lev. It has stood for more than a hundred years on the site of an inn that burned down in 1879. Theatre performances used to be staged in the courtyard of the original inn. The town council completed the new hotel in 1910. For its time it was a prestigious building and the only public building in town with central heating. With its high-quality hotel services it had hardly any competition in the area. It offered exceptional food and Pilsner beer, attentive waiters, live music played every evening, comfortable accommodation and even its own transport of guests by hotel stagecoach. There was no lack of a restaurant, a café and a large theatre hall, and from 1913 it was home to the first permanent cinema in Levice, called Apollo. Many people also know the building as Hotel Denk, after one of its owners, who had it considerably modernised in the 1930s.
Around Námestie hrdinov you will also find Hotel Golden Eagle, originally the house of Dávid Knapp, likewise a cultural monument, as well as the Burgher House on the opposite side of the square, which houses, among other things, the Levice Town Cellar – a permanent exhibition on the history and present of viticulture and winemaking in the town.
We will stay on Námestie hrdinov a little longer. Many of us remember it from the socialist era as a huge municipal car park and the venue of the Martin’s fairs. It took on its present form 15 years ago and became a cultural and relaxation zone. By the way, do you know why the square has “heroes” in its name?
Soldiers who died in the battles for the liberation of Levice at the end of the Second World War were originally buried here. Their bodies were later exhumed and reburied in the military cemetery in Štúrovo. The monument on the square was built in their honour, and a public collection was organised for its construction in the hard post-war years. The material of the monument is purely local – travertine from a nearby quarry. The author of the design was the best-known designer of objects made of Levice golden onyx – Helena (Ica) Tabyová. The top of the monument was “decorated” with a motif of the socialist star, hammer and sickle, which was removed after 1989. Today it is part of the depository of the Tekov Museum.
A Cross above the Town
We climb gently up a mild slope from the square. Our eye is caught by another historical curiosity, set into the hillside below the Calvary. The stately building of the Teachers’ Institute, or the “pégéčka”, as many people have long called the building of today’s Secondary School of Education, has stood here since 1911. Craftsmen from Italy also took part in its construction. The building was built in the style of “English colleges”, with a dormitory for 120 students. Teaching began in the 1911–1912 school year, and at that time it ranked among the most modern and most beautiful schools in Hungary.
The Levice Monograph provides an interesting detail. During the latest reconstruction of the building and the replacement of the roofing, an original message from the past was found. And not just one. It apparently belonged to the student thrill to get right under the roof and write one’s name on a roof tile. So the names of students from various periods of the school’s history, and even from other schools, have been preserved here …
A little further on, directly across the road, stands the Levice hospital. For years you may have walked along its wooden fence without noticing a smaller building, partly semicircular in shape with an interesting façade, which in the communist era served as a warehouse of medical supplies. Yet its original purpose was radically different, even sacred. From 1888 the Chapel of the Sacred Heart of Jesus stood here, right at the entrance of what was then the County Hospital. It served the nuns working in the hospital, but townspeople also came here for services. Unfortunately, in the harsh 1950s the communist regime abolished the chapel and set up a hospital warehouse in its premises. Today the civic association Patrimonium servandi is working to save and restore it.
A steep road past the “pégéčka” takes us high above the town, up to Calvary Hill. As early as the 17th century it served military purposes. A century later the hilltop Chapel of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross with a Crucifixion group and a Way of the Cross of five brick chapels were built here. After the devastating fire of the town, a pilgrimage of supplication was held here every July. Calvary was also a favourite walking place for the people of Levice. However, during the Second World War the Calvary buildings were badly damaged and fell into disrepair, until in the 1950s the sacred complex disappeared completely.
The renewal of Calvary was again initiated by the civic association Patrimonium servandi. Today there stand the remains of the little church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross with a modern roof covering and 14 chapels of the Way of the Cross, and what was originally a telecommunications tower at the top of the hill is now a lookout point offering a panorama of the town at your feet. The sacred complex was solemnly blessed on 27 July 2008, and two years later a seven-metre-high cross, towering above the town, was fixed to the top of the lookout tower and blessed.
The sacred complex is also a place from which you can easily reach, past the Jewish cemetery, Krížny vrch (Cross Hill), dotted with Levice vineyards. It is also known for an ancient well and the Chapel of the Virgin Mary, standing on the border of three cadastral areas. If you choose the way back towards the town, you will stroll along the Historic Promenade, which even before the First Czechoslovak Republic was a popular little park and walking place for the people of Levice. The Historic Promenade is regaining its original character, thanks above all to the efforts of the Levice Beautification Society. Once a year the Juniáles student festival is even held here.
The Castle and the Original Square
We are heading for the oldest surviving monument in the town – Levice Castle. Our steps lead once more across Námestie hrdinov. By the way, did you know it was not always the main square of the town? The centre was in fact located near the castle, and the recently restored Trinity Column was probably its focal point. At the beginning of the 20th century the town began to shed its walls and expand towards today’s square, at that time a marketplace. The large space made it possible to build stately buildings around its perimeter, but the surface of the square was neglected and was only later paved.
According to period records, the Trinity Column was erected in 1777 on the original Holy Trinity Square (today’s Sv. Michala Street), probably as thanks for protection during an epidemic. This is suggested by the statues of the protectors against disease, St. Roch and St. Sebastian. The sculptural group is completed by statues of St. John of Nepomuk and St. John the Baptist. The sculptural decoration is dominated by the group of the Coronation of the Virgin Mary by the Most Holy Trinity. The Trinity Column suffered from the ravages of time and vandalism. Its rescue was again taken care of by the civic association Patrimonium servandi. The present Trinity Column is a replica of the original sacred monument; the fragments of the original statues are kept in the Tekov Museum.
But back to the castle. The oldest parts of the castle date from the 13th to 15th centuries. It is built on a trachyte rock, around which there was a moat and marshy ground. At the time of the Turkish threat it grew in importance and its surroundings were enclosed with walls. In 1663–1664 it was under Ottoman rule. Serious damage to the castle occurred in the fire of 1696, and its devastation was completed in 1708 by Rákóczi’s troops. It lost its defensive importance and the remains of the castle have been decaying ever since.
Its restoration in the 1930s was thanks to the owners of the Levice estate – the Schoeller family, largely from their own resources. Not all alterations corresponded with the position of the then State Office for the Protection of Monuments, and so today the castle also includes the staircase from Koháryho Street leading to a modern round structure.
Sacred Monuments
The Franciscan order built a monastery complex near the castle. The foundation of the Church of St. Joseph was laid in 1714 and it was completed six years later. Construction of the adjoining monastery was finished in 1740. For a whole century the Franciscans influenced life in the town. After the dissolution of the contemplative orders in 1782 by Emperor Joseph II, the liquidation of the Levice monastery also began. At that time 24 monks lived in the monastery. Many objects were confiscated and ended up at auction; gold and silver objects were melted down at the Vienna mint.
During the Napoleonic wars a military hospital and depot were set up in the monastery. The return to its original purpose was brought about by the Piarist order, which was called here to run the newly founded grammar school. They also devoted themselves to pastoral work in the town. After 1918 the grammar school was nationalised and the last Piarists left the town in 1922.
The first church is mentioned in the settlement of Bratka (in the cadastre of Levice) as early as 1156. Its patronage was dedicated to St. Martin, later to St. Ladislaus. For almost a hundred years the church was also in Protestant hands. In 1645 it passed back into Catholic hands and the patronage changed to the present one – the Church of St. Michael the Archangel. Since then it has burned down twice and acquired its present form in the Esterházy era. The towers were added only in 1902, and their demanding construction was carried out by architect Rudolf Cibulka. The interior was renovated in 1992.
Among the sacred monuments one cannot fail to mention the Levice Synagogue and the adjoining Jewish School. The Synagogue was built in 1883; it is a hall-type house of prayer with a women’s gallery. The entrance façade was again designed by the Levice builder Rudolf Cibulka, whose hand is still visible in a number of significant buildings in the town. At the end of the 1960s the building passed to the state, but it fell into considerable disrepair. According to a later plan it was to serve as an exhibition hall, which was interrupted by the situation after 1989. In 1991 the building came under the administration of the town, but was heavily devastated. It was completely reconstructed in 2011–2012 and serves as the cultural venue of the town.
The adjoining Jewish School building was constructed to a design by the Viennese architect Jacques Oblatt. It is a characteristic work of Functionalist architecture of the 1930s and was completed in 1936. Many students went through it who later worked in significant professions in Levice. In 1944 it became part of the Jewish ghetto, and after the end of the Second World War a vocational school was set up in it. After 1967 the premises were used by a secondary school of economics. It was declared a National Cultural Monument in 2015. The Jewish School – the Centre of Tolerance – forms one complex with the Levice Synagogue. It hosts a permanent exhibition titled We Lived Here Together, which includes a gallery, and many lectures and workshop activities are organised here.
In the Footsteps of the Schoellers
The great entrepreneurs, the Schoeller family, bought the Levice estate from the Esterházys in 1867. At that time it covered more than 10,000 hectares, and Levice Castle was part of it.
The Schoeller Mill, an important monument, was built in 1879–1882 on the site of an old stone mill from the Esterházy era. It burned down in 1889, but was rebuilt and became the largest industrial building in the area. In 1900 the originally water-powered mill was converted to steam power. Oil served as fuel; later, as energy demands grew, an additional line from the municipal power plant was brought in, and finally in 1928 the mill was connected to the grid of the Central Slovak Power Plants. A four-storey silo was built for longer storage of grain while preserving its quality. The mill employed up to 80 people and processed 2,300 wagonloads of grain a year. It was equipped with the most modern technology and had a laboratory of European significance, its own power plant and a test oven. Products of the Levice mill were known throughout Slovakia and won significant awards. Today the main building has been repaired and is used for business purposes. The mill is one of the landmarks of the town and, with its massiveness and the grandeur of the structure, reminds every passer-by of the importance of its past existence (Tolnai, Csaba: Levice na starých pohľadniciach [Levice on Old Postcards], 2006).
Gustáv Schoeller, one of the owners of the Levice estate, built his residence in the adjoining park. The manor house was surrounded by many rare trees and plants, but during the Second World War it was damaged by a Russian bomber, and a flower bed now stands in its place. The park area was declared protected in 1984. The park underwent reconstruction at the turn of the millennium and a new statue of M. R. Štefánik was placed in it, after whom the park is now named. It is also worth mentioning that the original statue of this important figure of our history stood on Námestie hrdinov until 1938, when Levice became part of Hungary.
A Technical Monument – the Levice Siphon
A significant technical rarity is located near the castle and the castle park, at the point where the Perec canal and the Podlužianka watercourse meet. A project that was bold for its time is still functional today. At the so-called Levice Siphon, built in 1911, one watercourse literally “flows under” the other. This is made possible by three cast-iron pipes with a diameter of 1 m, through which the waters of the Perec flow. At both ends the pipes open into two water tanks, the upper of which served to catch silt. A siphon built in this way was able to carry away four cubic metres of water per second. There is one more similar technical “marvel” in the Levice district, near the village of Hontianska Vrbica (compiled from materials by PhDr. Ladislav Vincze, OESSH).
We will end our stroll through the town here. You can also set out “on your own axis” in search of further historical or architectural curiosities of the town.
There is still plenty to discover …
