A History of Central Eastern Europe

KOSTOL NANEBOVZATIA PANNY MÁRIE
This edifice, the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, is
the most significant Roman Catholic Church, in fact any church (of
which there are 2), in SPIŠSKÁ STARÁ VES. It was built in the second half
of the 14 th c; was subject to the Archdiocese of Esztergom for 3 centuries;
has been within the Diocese of Spiš since it was formed in 1776. The high
altar was installed in 1765 and, while the
church was remodeled in the Baroque
style in 1772, the presbytery dates to the
14 th c. This may have been the only
Church in town for 400 years! It serves as the “mother” church
for several village churches and as the only church for a few tiny
places (wait to you see the statistics section coming up – the 1995
Smith Family Reunion was larger than some of these places!)
As you may imagine, there
wasn’t much in the way of choice –
do we want to get married at this
church or , what?, not get married?
Keep that up and you’ll be as
celibate as a priest….oh, wait…that
doesn’t work here. Family: Nana’s
parents, JOZEF JÁN KUTARÑA and
KATARÍNA HASAY (photo on
Dedication page), married here on
25 June 1884. Two years later
JOZSEF left for the US, leaving
KATARÍNA behind. She followed his
footsteps the following year. A couple years after landing in
PLYMOUTH, PENNSYLVANIA they had ANNA MARIE KUTARNIA,
Nana to us, on 22 July 1889 (Note the Americanized spelling).
Nana’s grandparents, JÁN KUTARÑA and ANNA VIROSZTEK,
married here on 7 February 1861. Nana’s great-grandparents, JOZEF
KUTARÑA and MARIA ZADYORA, married here on 9 February 1843.
Theirs was a double-ring ceremony: JOZSEF’S brother JAN married
MARIA’S sister KATARÍNA. And Nana’s great-great grandparents,
MICHAEL KUTARÑA and ANNA KULTON, were living here by 1805
(they may have married here too, I just have not been able to access
those records) as their son ANDRÉAS was baptized here on the 2 nd of
November.
A Jewish Synagogue was built in the 19 th c. I t was set back on a main street lot. After
the areas Jewish residents were herded to their deaths in the Nazi extermination camps, there was no
need for the Synagogue, nor, in fact owners or caretakers – all synagogue relics had been destroyed,
stolen or hidden. Second World War new construction in front of the synagogue completely hid the
original structure. Subsequent additions to serve as a cultural center and youth club finished the
complete alteration of the structure and only fragments of the west wall remain from the 19 th c. 22
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