Pribina

Even though Pribina – ruler of the Nitra Princedom was a heathen at the beginning he built the first Slovak Christian Church in Nitra in 828. The church served first his wife Adeleida, who came from the Bavarian duke family of Wilhelm. It was consecrated by the archbishop Adalram from Salzburg.

There is a report that Pribina built the church for his wife, who became his wife because of her big love in spite of his heathens. Adelaida has got an illness regarding the big desire for godly life and when she said him about her pregnancy, Pribina promised her everything except treachery of his fathers faith.  (Perún – Thunderer, the biggest God of Slavs). Adelaida persuaded him, that he will not conspire his faith, but he will only support her faith. So he built her the church dedicated to her and the wayfarers from Christian countries.

The archaeology has to solve irreconcilable mysteries sometimes. The Slovak archaeologists have searched for a famous Pribina´s church for several centuries. At the beginning everything seemed to be very clear. The Romanesque chapel of the Nitra castle standing next to the younger Gothic church of St. Emeramus has been considered the oldest Christian church in Slovakia. The excavations on the castle hill that took place in between 1930 to 1931 as a part of the preparation of the grandiose millenium celebrations of the Great Moravia did not support this theory. The grave from 11th century was found under the building that shifted the age of the church to the period when the Prince Pribina had been already dead. The attention of archaeologists focused then on other parts of the city.