Sebechleby is an old farming village in Hont with a second, very strange village standing on the hill above it. The one in the valley has been written about since 1135 and belonged for seven centuries not to a noble family but to the cathedral chapter of Esztergom. The one on the hill, Stará Hora, began as chambers cut into soft volcanic rock so that people could hide from Ottoman raiders, and ended as one of the finest wine-cellar landscapes in Slovakia. Fear dug it; wine kept it.Sebechleby sú starou hontianskou poľnohospodárskou obcou, nad ktorou stojí druhá, celkom zvláštna dedina. O tej v doline sa píše od roku 1135 a sedem storočí nepatrila šľachtickému rodu, ale ostrihomskej kapitule. Tá na kopci, Stará Hora, sa začala ako diery vyhĺbené do mäkkej sopečnej skaly, kam sa ľudia skrývali pred tureckými nájazdmi — a skončila ako jedna z najkrajších vinohradníckych pivničných krajín na Slovensku. Vykopal ju strach, udržalo ju víno.
Drag the bar, or pick a year, to see what was happening here then.Potiahnite lištu alebo vyberte rok a uvidíte, čo sa tu vtedy dialo.
The Kingdom of HungaryUhorské kráľovstvo
Sebechleby is first mentioned in writing in 1135, spelled Zebehgleb — which is a fact about a document, not about when people first settled here. Later records write the name Scebechleb (1156), Zebehlep (1222) and Scebehlyb (1285). In 1156 the village tithe — a tenth of everything it grew — was granted to the chapter of Esztergom, the college of priests who ran the archbishop's cathedral, and in 1222 the county's ispán, the king's officer over the county, a man named Detre, sold them the whole village outright. From then on Sebechleby had a church landlord rather than a noble one, and kept it for centuries. Its Hungarian name was Szebeléb and its German one Siebenbrot, which in German reads literally as “seven loaves”.Prvýkrát sa obec spomína v písomnostiach roku 1135, a to v tvare Zebehgleb — prvá zmienka je však údaj o listine, nie o tom, odkedy tu ľudia žijú. Neskôr sa meno zapisuje ako Scebechleb (1156), Zebehlep (1222) či Scebehlyb (1285). Roku 1156 získala desiatok z obce — desatinu všetkého, čo dopestovala — ostrihomská kapitula, zbor kňazov pri arcibiskupskej katedrále, a roku 1222 jej celú dedinu predal župan Detre, teda kráľov správca stolice. Sebechleby tak nemali zemepána zo šľachty, ale z cirkvi, a zostalo to tak na stáročia. Po maďarsky sa obec volala Szebeléb, po nemecky Siebenbrot — čo doslova znamená „sedem chlebov“.
The parish church of St Michael the Archangel is Romanesque and is dated to about 1233, so it was already standing when the Mongol army broke into the Kingdom of Hungary in 1241. What the Mongols did in this corner of Hont is not recorded, and no honest account can fill that gap in. What is recorded is the answer that followed all over the kingdom: Béla IV pushed his lords to build in stone rather than timber, and landlords brought in settlers to refill emptied land. German colonists reached this area during the thirteenth century, and it is from them that the German name of the village comes.Farský Kostol svätého Michala archanjela je románsky a datuje sa asi do roku 1233 — stál teda už vtedy, keď roku 1241 vpadli do Uhorska Mongoli. Čo sa v tomto kúte Hontu vtedy dialo, pramene nehovoria — a nikto to za ne nesmie domýšľať. Zaznamenaná je až odpoveď, ktorá prišla po vpáde a platila v celej krajine: Belo IV. tlačil pánov, aby stavali z kameňa namiesto dreva, a zemepáni pozývali osadníkov, aby zaľudnili vyprázdnenú pôdu. Do tohto kraja prišli v 13. storočí nemeckí kolonisti a práve po nich má obec svoje nemecké meno.
Early in the fifteenth century the chapter's village was given the rights of a market town — a landlord's town, allowed to hold markets and settle some of its own affairs, but still owned by somebody. On paper that was a promotion. In practice Sebechleby never grew into a real town, and the county gazetteer blames what came next: the Ottoman raids and the long revolts of the Hungarian nobility. The village stayed a village, and the interesting history moved up the hill.Začiatkom 15. storočia získala kapitulská dedina práva zemepanského mestečka — smela mať trh a časť svojich vecí si spravovať sama, pána však nad sebou mala aj naďalej. Na papieri to bol postup nahor. V skutočnosti sa Sebechleby mestom nikdy nestali a vlastivedný súpis vidí príčinu v tom, čo prišlo potom: turecké nájazdy a dlhé stavovské povstania. Dedina zostala dedinou — a zaujímavé dejiny sa presťahovali hore na kopec.
In 1543 the Ottoman army took Esztergom itself, and the chapter that owned Sebechleby lost its own cathedral city; the archbishop's seat moved north to Trnava. The same year raiding parties began reaching into Hont. The villagers' answer was to dig. The hill above the village is tuff — compacted volcanic ash, soft enough to cut with a pick and firm enough to hold its shape — and they cut chambers into it big enough to hide people, animals and stores when the alarm went up. Those hiding places are the beginning of Stará Hora.Roku 1543 obsadili Turci sám Ostrihom a kapitula, ktorej Sebechleby patrili, prišla o vlastné katedrálne mesto; sídlo arcibiskupa sa presťahovalo na sever do Trnavy. Toho istého roku začali nájazdníci dobiehať aj do Hontu. Odpoveďou dedinčanov bolo kopať. Kopec nad obcou je z tufu — zo spevneného sopečného popola, ktorý sa dá tesať čakanom a pritom drží tvar — a tak doňho vytesali priestory dosť veľké na to, aby sa pri poplachu skryli ľudia, dobytok aj zásoby. Tieto úkryty sú začiatkom Starej Hory.
The seventeenth century brought a second kind of trouble: the estate uprisings, the long revolts of Hungarian nobles against their Habsburg kings, fought back and forth across this country for decades. The county gazetteer names them, together with the Turkish raids, as the reason Sebechleby never prospered. But the same century changed what the chambers on the hill were for. Vine-growing spread through this warm, dry corner of Hont in the sixteen-hundreds, and a room cut in tuff holds a steady cool temperature all year round — exactly what a barrel of wine wants. The cellars were driven deeper into the rock, and small press houses were built over their mouths.Sedemnáste storočie prinieslo druhú biedu: stavovské povstania, dlhé vzbury uhorskej šľachty proti habsburským panovníkom, ktoré sa desaťročia bili sem a tam aj po tomto kraji. Vlastivedný súpis ich spolu s tureckými nájazdmi uvádza ako dôvod, prečo sa Sebechlebom nikdy nezačalo dariť. To isté storočie však zmenilo, na čo diery na kopci slúžia. Do teplého suchého Hontu sa v sedemnástom storočí naplno rozšírilo vinohradníctvo a priestor vytesaný v tufe drží po celý rok stálu chladnú teplotu — presne to, čo sud vína potrebuje. Pivnice sa začali hĺbiť hlbšie do skaly a nad ich ústia postavili malé lisovne.
A tax census in 1715 counted 165 households here and eight craftsmen, mostly tailors and shoemakers — a farming village with a little trade in it, nothing more. In 1724 the medieval church was rebuilt in the Baroque taste, after an earlier remodelling in 1609–1611. Then in 1737 a chapel of St Urban was built in the middle of Stará Hora. Urban is the patron saint of vine-growers, and a chapel is what you build for a place you expect to keep: the cellar settlement was no longer an emergency shelter but a working settlement with a life of its own.Súpis z roku 1715 tu narátal 165 domácností a osem remeselníkov, väčšinou krajčírov a obuvníkov — poľnohospodársku dedinu s troškou remesla, nič viac. Roku 1724 stredoveký kostol barokovo prestavali; prestavbou prešiel už v rokoch 1609 – 1611. A roku 1737 postavili v jadre Starej Hory kaplnku svätého Urbana. Urban je patrónom vinohradníkov a kaplnka sa stavia tam, kde sa počíta s tým, že miesto vydrží: pivničná osada už nebola núdzovým úkrytom, ale osadou s vlastným životom.
By 1828 there were 177 houses and 1,057 people here. Five years later, in 1833, the villagers refused to do their robota — the unpaid labour every serf owed his landlord — and soldiers were sent in to break the refusal. It is worth knowing that this happened fifteen years before it became legal to say no: the revolution of 1848 abolished serfdom across the whole kingdom, and the families who had worked the chapter's fields became the owners of what they worked. The refusal of 1833 came early, and it cost them.Roku 1828 malo mestečko 177 domov a 1 057 obyvateľov. O päť rokov neskôr, roku 1833, dedinčania odmietli robotovať — robota bola neplatená práca, ktorou bol poddaný povinný zemepánovi — a vzburu prišlo potlačiť vojsko. Stojí za to vedieť, že sa to stalo pätnásť rokov predtým, než na to mali zákonné právo: revolučný rok 1848 zrušil poddanstvo v celom Uhorsku a rodiny, ktoré dovtedy robili na kapitulskom, sa stali majiteľmi pôdy, na ktorej pracovali. Vzbura roku 1833 prišla priskoro — a nebola zadarmo.
Under Austria-Hungary the village was officially Szebeléb, in the county of Hont, and Hungarian was the language of the state offices and, increasingly, of the schools. Very little else changed. The church was renovated in 1872, and in 1904 the villagers put up a monument to the Holy Trinity. Fields below, vines above, and the same year's work in both.V Rakúsko-Uhorsku sa obec úradne volala Szebeléb a patrila do Hontianskej stolice; jazykom úradov a čoraz väčšmi aj škôl bola maďarčina. Inak sa menilo máločo. Kostol roku 1872 obnovili a roku 1904 postavili v obci súsošie Najsvätejšej Trojice. Polia dolu, vinice hore — a v oboch ten istý každoročný kolobeh práce.
In 1918 the Kingdom of Hungary came apart and Sebechleby became part of the new Czechoslovakia. That drew a state frontier straight between the village and Esztergom, whose chapter had owned it since 1222: the landlord was now in another country. The chapter still held property here into the twentieth century all the same, which tells you how slowly an arrangement seven hundred years old actually unwinds.Roku 1918 sa Uhorsko rozpadlo a Sebechleby sa stali súčasťou nového Československa. Medzi obec a Ostrihom, ktorého kapitula ju vlastnila od roku 1222, sa tým položila štátna hranica — zemepán zostal v cudzine. Majetky tu kapitula napriek tomu mala ešte v 20. storočí, čo dobre ukazuje, ako pomaly sa rozväzuje vzťah starý sedemsto rokov.
The Slovak National Uprising broke out on 29 August 1944, and for two months the insurgents held central Slovakia — the country an hour's drive north of here. Thirty-eight people from Sebechleby took part in it. The figure is recorded in the county gazetteer, and for a village of this size that is a great many families. German troops crushed the open fighting by the end of October 1944, and those who kept going went into the woods. The front itself arrived the following spring, when Soviet forces pushed north out of the Ipeľ lowland and the war finally passed over Hont.Slovenské národné povstanie vypuklo 29. augusta 1944 a povstalci dva mesiace držali stred Slovenska — kraj hodinu cesty na sever odtiaľto. Zúčastnilo sa ho 38 ľudí z tejto obce. Číslo uvádza vlastivedný súpis a na dedinu tejto veľkosti je to veľmi veľa rodín. Otvorený boj Nemci do konca októbra 1944 rozdrvili a tí, čo pokračovali, odišli do hôr. Front sem prišiel až na jar 1945, keď sa sovietske vojská tlačili na sever z Ipeľskej nížiny a vojna sa konečne prevalila cez Hont.
After the communist takeover of February 1948 the fields in the valley were merged into a co-operative farm, as they were all over the district. Stará Hora was a different problem: hundreds of tiny vineyard plots and hand-cut cellars, each belonging to a family, none of it the sort of thing a co-operative farm was built to run. Very little was rebuilt up there, and that is much of the reason it still looks the way it does. In 1981 the state declared Stará Hora a reserve of folk architecture — one of only ten in the whole country — with 89 protected buildings.Po februári 1948 zlúčili polia v doline do jednotného roľníckeho družstva, tak ako v celom okrese. So Starou Horou to bolo inak: stovky drobných vinohradníckych políčok a ručne tesaných pivníc, každá patriaca inej rodine — nič z toho nebolo na spravovanie družstvom. Hore sa prestavovalo málo a práve tomu Stará Hora vďačí za to, že vyzerá dodnes tak, ako vyzerá. Roku 1981 ju štát vyhlásil za pamiatkovú rezerváciu ľudovej architektúry — jednu z desiatich v celej krajine — s 89 chránenými stavbami.
After November 1989 the co-operative broke up and land came back to families. The cellars on Stará Hora had stayed private property through all of it, and now they began to be repaired — and bought. Many became weekend places for people whose parents had moved down to the towns. The pressing still happens in autumn, which is when the lanes are being used for the work they were cut for, and when the settlement is most itself.Po novembri 1989 sa družstvo rozpadlo a pôda sa vrátila rodinám. Pivnice na Starej Hore zostali súkromné po celý čas a teraz sa začali opravovať — aj kupovať. Mnohé z nich sa stali víkendovými sídlami ľudí, ktorých rodičia sa kedysi odsťahovali do miest. Lisuje sa tu naďalej a práve na jeseň slúžia uličky práci, pre ktorú ich vytesali — vtedy je osada najviac sama sebou.
About 1,170 people live in Sebechleby today. Stará Hora is protected as a whole, with something like ninety buildings on the monument list; the village keeps one cellar as a small museum of the vintner's year, open seasonally rather than daily, and some growers receive visitors. In March 2025 the church of St Michael the Archangel was declared a diocesan shrine. One thing has not changed since the sixteenth century: the cellars belong to families, so an open cellar door on the lane is an invitation to the owner's guests, not to passers-by.V Sebechleboch dnes žije okolo 1 170 ľudí. Stará Hora je chránená ako celok a v zozname pamiatok je asi deväťdesiat stavieb; jednu pivnicu drží obec ako malé múzeum vinohradníckeho roka, otvorené sezónne, nie denne, a niektorí vinohradníci prijímajú návštevy. V marci 2025 vyhlásili Kostol svätého Michala archanjela za diecéznu svätyňu. Jedno sa od 16. storočia nezmenilo: pivnice patria rodinám, a tak sú otvorené dvere v uličke pozvaním pre hostí majiteľa, nie pre okoloidúcich.
Sources consulted while researching this page. Follow them to read further — and to check us.Zdroje, z ktorých sme pri príprave tejto stránky vychádzali. Kliknite a čítajte ďalej — aj si nás overte.
Sixteen videos for this chapter.Šestnásť videí k tejto kapitole.