History
The church was built around the mid-thirteenth century during the transition between Romanesque and Gothic periods. The village itself was mentioned in written sources only in 1346. In the late Gothic period, the building underwent minor modifications (the portal on the south side of the nave and the entrance to the sacristy). During the Reformation, the church passed into the hands of Protestants, who then significantly rebuilt it. In the 17th century, a massive low tower appeared, and the nave was vaulted. In the Baroque period the windows were also modified. The renovation of the church was carried out in 1872. At the beginning of the 20th century, a concrete gallery was built in the western part of the nave in place of an older, wooden one. Further repairs took place in the first half of the 1950s. The façade of the church was renovated in 1975.
Architecture
The original late Romanesque church was built on a low hill in the middle of the village, as a single-nave structure with a narrower square chancel, a semicircular apse on the eastern side and a sacristy on the northern side. The building had an interesting form which was an example of a combination of Romanesque and Gothic styles. The small nave the semicircular apse and the semicircular, splayed windows clearly referred to the older era, while the square chancel with cross-rib vault was already influenced by Gothic architecture.
The entrance to the church was on the south side of the nave in an early Gothic portal filled with trefoil in the clearance. A similar portal probably was on the west side of the nave before the tower was erected. A late-gothic portal from the 16th century led to the sacristy.
Inside the chancel, the cross-rib vault was supported in the corners on corbels, one of which was carved in the shape of a human head. Massive ribs were fastened in the center with a boss decorated with quatrefoil. The nave was originally covered with a wooden flat ceiling or an open roof truss, while the apse was topped with a conch. The nave and the presbytery were separated by an arcade with a slightly marked pointed arch with cornices at the base of the archivolt.
bibliography:
Mencl V., Stredoveká architektúra na Slovensku, Praha 1937.
Website apsida.sk, Žehňa.