Kovarce ( or ; ) is a municipality in the

Topoľčany District Topoľčany District (''okres Topoľčany'') is a district in the Nitra Region of western Slovakia. It borders Nové Mesto nad Váhom District and Bánovce nad Bebravou District in the north, Piešťany District and Hlohovec District in the we ...

of the

Nitra Region The Nitra Region (, ; ) is one of the administrative regions of Slovakia. It was first established in 1923 and from 1996 exists in its present borders. It consists of seven districts () and 354 municipalities, from which 16 have a town status. T ...

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

. In 2011 it had 1581 inhabitants.

History

Kovarce dates back at least to the late 13th century, in the

Hungarian Kingdom The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

, when it was the property of the Ludanick family. It was seized by

Matthew III Csák Máté Csák or Matthew III Csák (between 1260 and 1265 – 18 March 1321; , ), also Máté Csák of Trencsén (, ), was a Hungarian oligarch who ruled ''de facto'' independently the north-western counties of Medieval Hungary (today roughly th ...

during the troubles of the early 14th century. In 1395, it became property of the

Apponyi family The House of Apponyi, also known as Apponyi de Nagy-Appony, was a prominent and powerful Hungarian family of the high Upper nobility (Kingdom of Hungary), upper nobility of the Kingdom of Hungary, whose members remained notable even after the king ...

. It fell to Turkish attacks in 1530, 1599 and 1663. In 1663–1685, a period of Ottoman rule between the fourth Austro-Turkish war and the War of the Holy League, it was part of the Uyvar Province as an administrative unit of the ''

Nahiye A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' of

Nitra Nitra (; also known by other #Etymology, alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia, situated at the foot of Zobor Mountain in the valley of the river Nitra (river), Nitra. It is located 95 km east of Bratislava. With a population of ...

. In 1864 a

sugar refinery A sugar refinery is a refinery which processes raw sugar from cane or sugar extracted from beets into white refined sugar. Cane sugar mills traditionally produce raw sugar, which is sugar that still contains molasses, giving it color ...

was built in the village. A daughter of the sugar refinery's founder, Anton Wels, was the maternal grandmother of

Audrey Hepburn Audrey Kathleen Hepburn ( Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress. Recognised as a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend from the Classical Holly ...

Points of interest

The former castle stands in the midst of the village. The Wels family purchased it from its last aristocratic owners and remodeled it by building a second floor, then sold it to the

after the death of Anton Wels in 1876. The Apponyis appear not to have lived there but rented it, to the local Rosenthal brothers until 1906. From 1906 the castle was rented to American businessman (and in 1912 ''Titanic'' survivor) Thomas Cardeza, a grandson of the founder of

Fidelity Trust Company Fidelity Trust Company was a bank in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1866 as Fidelity Insurance, Trust, & Safe Deposit Company, the bank was later renamed Fidelity Trust Company, Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company, The Fidelity Bank, and F ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, and his French-born wife Mary (née Racine and descendant of

Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ; ; 22 December 1639 – 21 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, as well as an important literary figure in the Western tr ...

), both of whom had lived between 1903 and 1906 in nearby Nitrianska Streda. The Cardezas also made transformations, including building the southern wing's second floor, and kept a small zoo including bears and monkeys in the castle's garden. They left Kovarce after the

American entry into World War I The United States entered into World War I on 6 April 1917, more than two and a half years after the war began in Europe. Apart from an Anglophile element urging early support for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British and an a ...

in April 1917, but kept renting the property until 1920. In late 1926, Count Henrik Apponyi sold it to the Czechoslovak Government which transformed it into an institution for war invalids. In 1953, it became an institution for mentally ill patients, which it still is under the name "Clementia". Another mansion in the village, initially built in the 18th century, is now privately owned.

Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Patara (Lycia), Patara in Anatolia (in modern-day Antalya ...

Church, in the center of the village, dates back to the 18th century.

Saint Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christianity, Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's Gosp ...

Church, on a hill dominating the village, was built in the 19th century in the

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

style. Image: Kovarc epulet.JPG, Former castle, now Clementia institution Image: Kovarc Szt Florian szobor.JPG, Statue of

Saint Florian Florian (; AD 250 – 304) was a Christian holy man and the patron saint of chimney sweeps; soapmakers, and firefighters. His feast day is 4 May. Florian is also the patron saint of Poland, the city of Linz, Austria, and Upper Austria, jointl ...

in front of the former castle Image: Kostol sv. Anny - panoramio (4).jpg, St Anne Church

References

Genealogical resources

The records for genealogical research are available at the state archive "Statny Archiv in Nitra, Slovakia" * Roman Catholic church records (births/marriages/deaths): 1698-1932 (parish A)

External links

*http://en.e-obce.sk/obec/kovarce/kovarce.html
Official homepage
{{Authority control Villages and municipalities in Topoľčany District

History

Points of interest

See also

References

Genealogical resources

External links