Monuments
The most important building in town, which has overcome all
disasters, is the Roman-catholic parish church of St. Nicolas
- the town patron. It is a beautiful specimen of Gothic architecture
consisted of a nave and an aisle with remarkable reticulated
vault and original inventory. According to E. Lorád, the church
stands on a site of a Romanesque church from the 13th century.
According to the List of Monuments in Slovakia, the nave originated
in the same century as the town itself, i.e. in the 14th century.
Its ground plan with a square presbytery and sacristy from so-called
transition style between Romanesque and Gothic style suggests
this opinion. The nave was originally covered by simple wooden
roof. In 1506 it was vaulted with rich Gothic tracery vault.
The presbytery and the sacristy have ribbed cross vault.
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| City walls with St. Nicolas'
church in the background. |
About 1400 a new aisle was built to the northern side of the
church. It is vaulted with four vault areas of cross vault in
developed Gothic style. The presbytery is covered by one area
of cross vault. Cornices of the triumphal arch have rich plastic
decoration of animal motives and human heads. The light penetrated
to the aisle through four Gothic windows; each of them has a
different tracery. Alike windows in the presbytery, they originally
used to have colourful glass plates. From the Reformation till
1940, the nave was separated from the aisle by a single wall.
Some explorers claim, that it is the aisle that was built on
the original Romanesque foundations and originally it had two
presbyteries, one of which is now the sacristy.
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| A Gothic window of the nave. |
The nave is separated from the presbytery by a broken triumphal
arch. Above it, on the front wall of the nave, is the municipal
arms depicting St. Nicolas (the patron of the church and town)
on City walls and two miners. Until the reconstruction in 1940,
there was an inscription under it that read: "Sancte Nicolae
intercesione tua florescant montes," which means: "St.
Nicolas, let our mines flourish on your intercession."
There is another Latin inscription on the right side of the
arch: "Margarita virgo fundatrix huius ecclesiae"
(Virgin Margarita, a founder of this church) with a datum 1506
under it. The virgin's identity remains a mystery, but her portrait
was preserved in the church until the 18th century. Facing the
arch, there is a Renaissance epitaph by Hans Solner (from 1589)
with the relief of crucified Christ.
In the front wall of the presbytery there is a two-part Gothic
window with a trefoil tracery. Windows of the nave had the
same type of tracery, yet were removed in 1917 during the
installation of the
window-panes. On the epistle side there is a marvellous Gothic
pastophorium. The cross vault of the sanctuary is decorated
by frescos of the four Apostles.
The church had originally two towers. Both of them were destroyed
by earthquakes and later removed. None of these towers had
bells; the original wooden belfry was situated aside of the
church. It was later rebuilt into a brick one. Contemporary
belfry dates back to 1864 - 1867. It has three storeys and
a pavilion roof, yet its style is incongruent with the rest.
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| The high altar of the Crucifixion
from the end of the 15th century. |
Unlike the majority of churches in Southern Slovakia, St. Nicolas'
church has kept the original Gothic inventory, for example magnificent
wing altars from the end of the 15th century, made probably
by Master of the Holy Sepulchre from Hronský Beňadik.
The oldest altar - Virgin Mary's - dates back to 1470 - 1480.
There is a 120cm tall, carved wooden statue of Virgin Mary
in the centre and statues of St. Barbara, St. Catherine, St.
Margith and St. Dorothy - saints of all miners - in the side
niches. Both sides of wings are painted: the Marian cycle
on the reverse and Madonna with saints on the face.
There are five other altars in the church: the altar of Virgin
Mary's Coronation, St. Joseph's altar, St. Saviour's altar,
the high altar of the Crucifixion and St. John Nepomucký's
altar. The first mentioned dates back to 1484. In the side
niches there are statues of St. John, St. Peter, St. John
the Baptist and St. Paul. The wings are decorated with the
Passion motives. The sculpture of the Coronation is younger
than the rest; the original central statue was probably the
"Vir dolorum" statue.
St. Salvator's (Saviour's) altar with a central statue of
Jesus Christ dates back to 1488. During the reconstruction
of the church in 1942 a letter was found inside the statue,
written in German and dated October 10, 1488: "Mister
Paul, a painter from Buda (note: a part of contemporary Budapest),
made this altar in 1488 to honour Saint Apostles. He placed
it into the Pukanec's church eight days before St. Luke's
day".
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| The interior of the Lutheran
church. |
The high altar of the Crucifixion dates back to the end of
the 15th century. The central group of statues includes Christ
Crucified, the two criminals, Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene,
St. John and Longin. The wings are decorated with reliefs
of Jesus on the Mount of Olives, Judas's kiss, the flogging
of Jesus and Simon from Cyrene carrying the cross.
The only Baroque altar in the church is the altar of St.
John Nepomucký from the 18th century.
Situated in the middle of the main square, the Lutheran church
represents a notable work of the architectonic Modern style.
It was built in 1935 as a single nave church with a terraced
roof. The altar on the face wall is made from travertine and
is decorated with motives of the Ten Commandments on marble
boards.
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| The lower Gate, pulled down
in 1899. |
The altar picture "The Resurrection of Christ" was
painted by Edmund Gwerk from Banská Štiavnica. The "toleration"
Lutheran church, which was situated behind the City walls, was
pulled down during the construction of contemporary church;
the altar picture "The Last Supper" from about 1790
is the only preserved part of its interior.
The royal towns had the right to enclose themselves. According
to Križka, Pukanec had simple wooden palisades yet in times
of the Hussite wars; just the Pukanec's "castle" -
the church - had a massive stone wall. This fortification became
an important defence work especially in terms of the Turkish
danger. Pukanec and another town - Krupina - served as an entrance
gateway to the area of seven mining town in Central Slovakia.
Unfortunately, the original fortification collapsed in 1569,
a year after it prevented Pukanec fro m Turkish raid on August
27, 156
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| The Holy Trinity sculpture from
1740, The Baroque Town Hall from 1783 - 86 in the background. |
8. Another fortification was built in 1578 - 1595. According
to Pukanec's archivist Ján Králik, not one, but two fences were
constructed: a stone one around the inner city and a wooden
around the outskirts. The fortification was interrupted with
two gates; the last mention about the upper one came form 1799.
A century later was the lower gate pulled down on Július Ciglan's
- the local notary's - request.
The parish church of St. Nicolas used to be a core of a town
castle, similar to the one in Kremnica. A bridge led into
its inner spaces through a four-storey bastion, which later
served as a Town Hall.
A watchtower called túrnička represented another part of
the town fortification. When the guard saw an enemy approaching
the town he started to ring the alarm and thus he warned people
and the workers in the fields.
Since 1740 the Holy Trinity pillar is located in the centre
of the main square. It was built as a memorial of a cholera
plague. The Holy Trinity sculpture itself is located at the
top of the main central pillar.
There used to be several valuable burghers' and squires' houses
in old Pukanec, yet, unfortunately, they were destroyed during
reconstruc
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| A pantry for fruit. |
tions. The only original dwelling place that has been preserved
is in Švihranovský house in Krátka Street. According to the
local legend, the house was occupied by Italian workers who
were constructed the City walls.
Two types of folk habitations from the 18th and 19th century
still exist on the outskirts: a mining house and a craft -
agricultural house.
The former type had three rooms. In the central room there
was a doorway and a kitchen. In the other parts of the house
there was a living room called chyža and a pantry. There used
to be no farm buildings joined to the house. Usually it was
situated in a slope terrain along the road.
The latter type had also three rooms, but alike the mining
habitation, there were workrooms and other farm building near
the house. Richer craftsmen and squires had two-storey houses
with beautiful arcadian staircases built, such as the Kevickovský
house called the Old post.
Štádle are wooden single or three roomed haylofts, usually
used for storing fruit. Ľochy are original wine cellars from
the Middle Ages. Their upper rooms are today used for holiday
purposes.
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