St. Urban
Station No. 15 is situated at the border of the Tekov part of the Kostoľany vineyards at a statue of St Urban, Bishop of Langres (in AD 384–390), who according to legend was attacked in his house during the persecution of the Christians. After the fleeing bishop was hidden by winegrowers and saved, he became the patron of vineyards and winegrowers, innkeepers, and even of barrel makers. The Kostoľany St Urban represents an example of how the saint is sometimes confused with pope Urban I, bishop of Rome in AD 222–230 and depicted with papal tiara and holding grapes in the hand instead of an episcopal mitre, book, grapes a vine branch or a wine jar.
The asphalt road ends at station No. 14, here we follow the yellow marking (8135) to a small forest, where we turn left to a field road, which rises to the vineyards above the municipality of Kostoľany pod Tribečom. On the highest place, there is a crossing and a statue of St Urban covered with a wooden roof.
Time: 8 min. opposite direction 5 min., length: 0.5 km, slightly demanding.
The Kostoľany St Urban represents an example of how the saint is sometimes confused with pope Urban I, bishop of Rome in AD 222–230 and depicted with papal tiara and holding grapes in the hand instead of an episcopal mitre, book, grapes a vine branch or a wine jar.
Urban’s first statue stood in the Kostoľany vineyard at the latest from the middle of the 19th century. The wooden statue from an unknown woodcutter is described as standing in the niche of a walled rectangular building about 100 m south-west of station no. 15. The decaying statue was carried to St George’s Church and in 1948 replaced with a stone statue by Jozef Židík from Ladice on a new spot, where it is still standing. At the end of the 20th century it was in a very poor condition. Thanks to the Horská a pasienkova spoločnost Kamenné Kostoľany pod Tribečom (Montane and Pastoral Society Stone Kostoľany pod Tribečom) and Peter Kotra from Kostoľany a copy was made by the sculptor Albín Okša of Prašice. The copy was set on a stone pedestal, covered with a wooden roof and consecrated in 2010.
Viticulture set foot in Kostoľany already in the 16th century; it reached its peak in the second half of the 18th century. A tax list from 1763/1764 mentions already 198 diggers, which corresponds to almost 8 ha of vineyards. Until 1828 this area was reduced to less than 2 diggers of vineyards in the Tekov part of the municipality. A phylloxera epidemy at the end of the 19th century destroyed the rest of the Kostoľany vineyards, which then were partially renewed by help of the Hungarian government.
The last boom of viticulture at Kostoľany started after World War II. In 1949–1953 the cultivars Othello blanc and rouge, Izabella, Delaware, Korkondia, Chasselas blanc and rouge. In the mid-1970s the old vineyards were regenerated by the planting of must cultivars as Müller Thurgau, Rheinriesling, Welschriesling, Grüner Veltliner, Blaufränkisch, Blauer Portugieser. At the end of the 1980s interest in viticulture ceased and some were burned down. The last grapes were planted in 2000 (Grüner Veltliner, Rheinriesling, Pinot blanc, Pinot gris, St Laurent, and André). Only about a fifth of the former 5 ha of vineyards are been sporadically cultivated today.
