In the ninth century this was not a border at all — it was the heart of Great Moravia. Mikulčice, one of the greatest strongholds of that state and quite possibly the seat of its princes, stands a few kilometres down the river on the far bank, and the settlements on this side belonged to the same zone. At Kopčany, the next village past Holíč, a tiny church of St Margaret still stands for which archaeologists argue a Great Moravian origin; the dating is genuinely disputed, but no other standing building in Slovakia has a stronger claim. The lesson is worth keeping for the rest of this timeline: the Morava joined the two banks together for centuries before it ever divided them.V deviatom storočí tu nijaká hranica nebola — bolo to srdce Veľkej Moravy. Mikulčice, jedno z najväčších hradísk tohto štátu a celkom možno aj sídlo jeho kniežat, ležia pár kilometrov po prúde na druhom brehu a osady na tejto strane patrili do tej istej sídelnej oblasti. V Kopčanoch, hneď za Holíčom, dodnes stojí kostolík svätej Margity, ktorému archeológovia pripisujú veľkomoravský pôvod; datovanie je naozaj sporné, no nijaká iná stojaca stavba na Slovensku nemá silnejší nárok. Oplatí sa to zapamätať na celý zvyšok tejto osi: Morava oba brehy po stáročia spájala, kým ich vôbec začala deliť.
