Drienčany

The territory in the gate of the canyon-like valley of the river Blh was settled as nearly as the Neolith, then the Bronze Age and the Iron Age again. Drienčany is one of the oldest villages which was donated through merits to the Balogh family by the king in the mid 12th century. The oldest written reference of the village is descended to the year 1291. In the 14th century one branch of the extended family set up their residence here, built a fortified castle and adopted the name after the village - Derencsényi. They are likely to have built also the Church of All Saints in the second half of the 13th century. The village was totally destroyed during the Turkish invasion about the year 1560. In the early 17th century it was re-settled and later, in the 19th century Drienčany became an important centre of economic and cultural life. Many poets, writers and folklorists were coming here, among them for example Pavol Emanuel Dobšinský, Ján Čajak, Jonatan Dobroslav Čipka, Ľudovít Kubáni and it was also the birth-place of Gustáv Liskay, a professor of geology at the Mining Academy in Banská Štiavnica.

|