from 1543 Chambers cut in the rock, to hide inDiery vytesané do skaly, aby bolo kam sa skryť

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.