In 1310 the archbishop gave permission to build a chapel here, dedicated to St John, and that chapel is the seed of the parish church. By 1358 the records mention two mills and gold in the village's ground; gold was worked here on a small scale until 1571. None of this made Poniky rich — this is estate and forest country of Zvolen county, farmed and grazed rather than mined — but it does explain how a village of no great size could afford, fifty years later, to have its church painted.Roku 1310 dal arcibiskup povolenie postaviť tu kaplnku zasvätenú svätému Jánovi a práve tá je zárodkom farského kostola. Do roku 1358 spomínajú písomnosti v chotári obce dva mlyny a zlato; zlato sa tu v malom dobývalo až do roku 1571. Bohaté Poniky z toho neboli — je to panská a lesnatá krajina Zvolenskej stolice, kde sa skôr gazdovalo a páslo než dolovalo — vysvetľuje to však, ako si o päťdesiat rokov neskôr mohla nie práve veľká dedina dovoliť dať si vymaľovať kostol.