Szilice

Szilice (Silica) is a village in the Rozsnyó district of the Kassa (Kosice) region in Slovakia, it is located 16 km south of Rozsnyó (Roznava), in the middle of the Szilicei Plateau, next to the Hungarian border. It is famous for its Reformed church, which is surrounded by a well-fortified wall, and for the St László murals inside the church. Location on My Google Maps: https://tinyurl.com/5n7eyz8f

Its Reformed church was built in 1526 in the late Gothic-Renaissance style, its fortress walls are from the 16th century. The church was rebuilt in the 18th century in the Baroque style, then in the 19th century in the Classicist style. The decoration is from the 18th century.

A winding serpentine road from Gombaszög takes you to the magical landscape of the Szilicei Plateau. Here, in a world of karst caves, you can find Szilice. As the bird flies, the village is just a hop from Rozsnyó and Pelsőc (Poreč), a few kilometers from the state border. On the other side of the Slovak Karst are Aggtelek and Jósvafő.

The Church of the Reformed Parish of Szilice stands on the top of a large hill overlooking the village. Thanks to its location, it is the most dominant building in the village and the surrounding countryside.

It was first mentioned in writing in 1376 as “Sedlych”, then in 1386 as “Zedlyche”. The next written record of the single-nave, originally a late Gothic prayer building dates back to 1399, when it was mentioned as „Zethlyche”, a Catholic church dedicated to All Saints.

The oldest parts of the building, i.e. those that have survived from this period, are the three Romanesque loophole-shaped windows and the Gothic southern entrance. There are fingerprints in the plaster of the northern wall of the church, which are probably the work of the master builder of the Romanesque church.

The fragments of the wall paintings on the inner walls of the church date back to the 14th and 15th centuries. The upper part of the mural discovered on the northern wall depicts the legend of St. László, identified by the leg of St. László preserved on the fragment. The drawing shows the moment when the king was about to step on the foot of the Cuman warrior during the battle. The lower part of the fresco depicts the infant Jesus sitting on the lap of the Virgin Mary and other saints.

During the 15th century, fighting against the Bohemian Hussites led to the fortification of the church with a defensive wall, which could have been built by the Hussites themselves or by the locals. In 1430 it was mentioned as “Zylicza”. Around 1526, the church was still being enlarged in a Catholic spirit, but the records of the Catholic visitations to Esztergom in the 1560s already indicated that the congregation had become followers of Luther’s teachings.

Throughout the centuries, the church itself, as the house of God and the center of the religious life of the Christian community, has had a great influence on the life of the villages on the plateau. Gradually, several small villages in the area, such as Korotnok and Kisfalu, disappeared. However, the population of Szilice increased year by year.

According to the description of Fényes Elek from the mid-19th century, about 1/4 hour to the east, on the high hill of Sólyomkő, there is an old ruined castle. But the most notable feature of this place is the so-called Ledniczei cave, which is only a short distance west of the village.

According to Borovszky’s description, “it used to belong to the Krasznahorka castle. Its later landlords were the Thököly, Nyáry, Eszterházy, Gyulay, Radvánszky, Hámos, and Czékus families, and partly the Andrássy family and Andrássy Dénes and Andrássy Géza had a larger estate here. The area around the village is rich in natural sights. The ice cave is one of the most beautiful ones. (…) The village was almost completely burnt down in 1813, 1833, and 1871.”

Until 1920 it was part of the Rozsnyó district of Gömör-Kishont county. It lost more than a fifth of its territory when the Trianon border was drawn (today this part of the village lands belong to Aggtelek) and became a peripheral border village. It was also part of Hungary between 1938 and 1945. At the turn of 1944-45, the village was the scene of heavy fighting.

In 1910 it had 993 inhabitants, mainly Hungarians. In 2001, 533 of its 599 inhabitants were Hungarians, 33 Slovakians, and 29 Gypsies. In 2011, 438 of its 562 inhabitants were Hungarians and 67 were Slovaks.

The Szilicei Ice Cave was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995 as a part of the Aggtelek Karst and the Slovak Karst Caves.

Sources: Felvidéki útikalauz and Hungarian Wikipedia

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Here are a few more pictures of Szilice: