Submitted by Audra Lane
Bánovce nad Ondavou With its historical written origins dating back to 1329, Bánovce nad Ondavou is a small village within the Michalovce District, and Kosice Region of eastern Slovakia. This territory has been inhabited since the end of the Late Stone Age and early Bronze Age, as found evident by an ancient, East Slovak burial mound site.
The village name means “Bánovce over the Ondava River”, as it is located on the middle of the East Slovak Plain, below the confluence of the Topl’a and Ondava rivers. The village population was 697 as of the 2021 census. Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to visit yet but learned more about the village during my family genealogy research.
My great-grandmother, Anna Marcinik, was born here in 1897 and married my great-grandfather, Michal Lešňanský, in the Reformed church (Calvinist) in 1920. The Reformed church in Bánovce nad Ondavou was first established in 1610. A neoclassical church was built on the site of the original church in 1867, and this is where my great-grandmother was baptized. Bánovce nad Ondavou is also home to a newly built Roman Catholic church which was completed in 1998.
A museum honoring the famous literary native, Pavel Horov, is a popular place to visit in Bánovce nad Ondavou. The Literary Museum of Pavel Horov exhibition is housed in a former elementary school and has two main thematic areas. The first display is of the National Artist Pavel Horov, where he is honored as a poet and a man of deep moral and aesthetic sensibilities. The second section is denoted as ‘the natives of Pavel Horov.’ In this part of the museum, you will find many photographs, excerpts of poems, the study room of Horov with his original equipment, and portraits of several prominent Slovak poets.
