Brhlovce

The rock at Brhlovce is volcanic tuff, soft enough to cut with hand tools and hard enough to hold a roof, and from at least the sixteenth century the villagers cut rooms, cellars and stores into it, sometimes putting a built front on a carved interior so that the house looks conventional from the street. Tradition says the practice began as refuge from Ottoman raiding. Several dwellings survive and one is a museum with its interior furnished.

Background

In Hungarian the village is called Borfő, and it belongs to the Levice District of the Nitra Region. Its date of establishment is given as 1245, and it sits at an elevation of 204 m. The present village came into being in 1952, when Dolné Brhlovce and Horné Brhlovce were joined into one. It covers 13.385 km² and has 329 inhabitants. Local people are said to have carved the rock dwellings in the 16th and 17th centuries, preferring them to ground-level houses that would have been visible from a distance. The dwellings have been put forward for the UNESCO World Heritage List. Parish registers survive for the Lutheran community from 1746-1896 and for the Roman Catholic one from 1844-1895.

Source: Wikipedia, "Brhlovce"

Highlights

• The rock-cut rooms - interiors carved into soft volcanic tuff behind built fronts.
• The museum house - a carved dwelling furnished as it was lived in.
• The tuff cliffs - the rock face the village is worked into.
• The cellars and stores - carved chambers still used by households.

When to go

April to October is the main season; the museum keeps limited hours and closes in winter. Weekdays are quiet. The site is small.

Good to know

Most of the carved houses are private property and only one is open. The museum keeps short hours and may need checking ahead. The village is otherwise ordinary.

Nearby

Levice is southwest, and Sebechleby is northeast.

Key facts