Evangelical a. v. church.
The building is partially open to the public.
Also in Martin, from the 16th century, there were inhabitants who professed the Evangelical faith, although they did not have their own church here. They used the articular church in Necpaloch. After the adoption of the toleration patent, the evangelicals of Martina decided to apply for permission to build a church of God. They received it in November 1783 and on 1 May 1784 the foundation stone was laid. The simple building of the toleration church without a tower was built in less than a year - already on 11 November 1874 the church was consecrated. Of course, as a sanctuary one should imagine the simplest possible thing. When the law on the construction of toleration churches was changed and it was allowed to build them with towers for bells, the people of Martin also asked for it. They were granted permission, and so in 1791 they added a wooden tower, which lasted until 1852. In May 1885 they started to build a brick tower, which was finished in September.
The complex reconstruction of the church and the tower was realized 10 years later.The builder was Samuel Petrikovich from Radvan. The church changed its appearance considerably. The walls were bricked up, the windows were enlarged, the space was newly vaulted, the sacristy was added and the tower was enlarged in height.A large number of decorative elements were applied on the entrance facade and on the entire exterior of the building, which are in harmonious harmony with each other. Inside, there is a three-aisled emporium supported by columns, a neo-classical altar and a pulpit. In 1896, they procured an organ, the pipes of which were reclaimed during the war, so it was necessary to purchase a new one in 1923, which was already electrically powered.The exterior of the church was given a uniform appearance in the Neo-Romanesque style. Thereafter, no substantial changes were made to it except for basic maintenance and necessary repairs.
Memorandum Square
The present Memorand Square is marked out by buildings belonging to the Evangelical Church. These are the Evangelical parish, the Evangelical choir house, the building of the first Slovak grammar school, the Evangelical church and the Bible school.
The square is named after an important historical event - on 6 and 7 July 1861, the leading representatives of the Slovak national movement gathered here and discussed and proclaimed the Slovak political programme in front of a gathering of five thousand people. (It should be stressed that at that time the whole Turčiansky Sv. Martin had about 1800 inhabitants.) It was adopted as the Memorandum of the Slovak Nation. They asked the government for recognition of the Slovak nation and its rights, which the Slovak delegation later presented to the monarch in Vienna. For a short period of time, they were able to use Slovak as an official and teaching language, three Slovak grammar schools were founded and on the thousandth anniversary of the arrival of Sts. Cyril and Methodius to our territory in 1863, the national cultural institution Matica slovenská (Slovak Motherland) was founded in Martin.
The famous event is commemorated by a large-scale bronze relief sculpture by Ján Koniarek on the north wall of the rectory.
The rectory building was built between 1931 and 1932 on the site of the old rectory from 1786. It was built in the style of moderate regional modernism. Interesting architectural elements are the representative staircase and the social hall with a coffered ceiling and high windows.
The Evangelical Congregation House was built in 1941-1942 to serve the wider activities of the church. For this purpose, they had a large hall with a stage and a gallery set up in the house. A smaller hall was to be used for a puppet theatre according to the project. The building also housed the church archives. In addition, there were storerooms, cellars and a garage.
An evangelical folk school was built next to the evangelical church as early as 1784. In 1902 it was demolished and a new church school was built. Even today it serves school purposes as a Bible school. It has undergone two major renovations in recent decades. The second took place between 2000 and 2005 and created very nice premises. The uninformed visitor who enters this building for the first time will be surprised, even shocked, to find that inside there is a large, high-ceilinged hall that gives the impression of a temple nave. This effect is enhanced by the decoration on the front wall of this hall. The space was created by covering a small courtyard that once surrounded the building.During the renovation, the school gained a new modern space in the attic. Although it is a modern building, the exterior facades with their original neo-classical decoration give it a historic character.
Lime trees are an important part of Memorandum Square. Unfortunately, the original, commemorative ones, under which a large crowd of enthusiastic Slovak patriots murmured and cheered in the summer of 1861, had to be removed due to the poor health of the trees. Pieces from their trunks are kept in the Slovak Matrix as relics. Their "replicas" are now growing in the square. People are no longer even aware of the importance of this place, but in the hot summer they mentally praise the lime trees for their coolness.
Text: PhDr. Milan Gonda
Actual photos of monuments donated by Mgr. Ján Farský
Historical photos provided by Ing. Vladimír Bullo
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