Jelenec


Jelenec is a municipality and village in the Nitra District of the south-west of Slovakia, in the Nitra Region.
The village of Jelenec lies below the southeastern spurs of the Tribeč mountain range at an altitude of 192 m above sea level. In terms of territorial and administrative division, it belongs to the Nitra Region and Nitra District. Its territory is built up of granitoid and sedimentary rocks. Some local minerals formed by hydrothermal mineralization are rare. Irregular seams of lignite coal, which are of variable quality, also occur in the Neogene sediments.
WWW jelenec.sk

History

The first written mention of the village dates back to 1113, when the name of the village as Gimes appeared in the Zobor Documents of the Zobor Benedictine monastery. There are several theories about the origin of the village name, the most probable of which claims that it is formed from the word "gím" which means deer. According to a later transcription of a document from 1226, the Hungarian king Andrew II donated the village to Ivánek of the Hunt-Poznanov family. His son Andrew, who received the village in 1253 for saving Bela IV.'s life in the fight against the Tatars, had a castle built on Dúň hill.

Population

It has a population of  people.

Places of Interest

Gýmeš Castle

Jelenec is known to be the home of Gýmeš Castle also known as Jelenec Castle which are the ruins of a medieval castle located on the steep quartzite hill Dúň on the southern slope of the Tribeč mountain range, approximately 5 km north of the village.
The ruin is a prominent landmark of the wide surroundings. Gýmeš is one of the ancestral castles of the noble Forgáč family – together with the Galician Castle. Despite the fact that the Turksconquered and caused damage to it, the structure was restored and occupied until 1865. Following that year, it fell into decay. Only a portion of the castle walls still remain intact.

Museum of the Forgách family

The Baroque mansion was built in 1722 by Bishop Pavol IV. Forgách. The Forgách family lived and stayed in it until the end of World War II. This noble family is quite important for Slovak history, which is why a permanent exhibition of the Forgách Family Museum was established in 2009. The museum presents a range of life stories of the Forgách family, who have appeared in Slovak history for more than eight centuries.

Jelenec Church

The church, which is still functional today, is located in the central part of the village. According to its location on the manuscript map of the 1st military survey from 1782-1784, it shows that the church originally formed a landmark in the northwestern part of the village.

Genealogical resources

The records for genealogical research are available at the state archive "Statny Archiv in Nitra, Slovakia"