Sites of Great Moravia: Mikulcice - Kopcani

Considering the pivotal position of Great Moravia in the Slovak nation building I assumed that St marguerite chapel would be a very wll kept up site with student groups flocking to see the oldest staning building of their nation. The reality is far from it.

Kopcany is not far from the north-south motorway and only 64 kim from bratislava We approached from the other side, coming home (to Hungary) from the Czech Republic. It is quite easy to find the village, and the chapel is wll signposted. Coming from north we had to turen right. For quite a surprise the tar road ended u pin a signboard that was clearlx showing the way to a dirt road. As it was a sunny summer day, it was viable with a normal urban car. (But was not easyí at all.) The chapel itself is quite int the middle of onwhere. It is a little humble and seemingly very old structure, with all the characteristics of the cantral Europen Romanesque stile.

It is open only for occasional services, so the visitors can see the interion only through hte keyhole, or a gap ont he door. It seem to be quite uninteresting.

So if you are ont he motorway, on a sunny day, it worth a small detour, but do not try to go there in autumn or winter.

During the winter of 2006 we went from our house in Brno by car just 70 km to Slovakia passing the border at Hodonín to take a look to Kopčany. It is a small village of a couple of houses quite in the middle of nowhere. We knew the Saint Margaret's church was located to the north of it and soon we saw it in the open countryside quite far and wondered how to get there. But then we noticed along the road n. 2 some signboards indicating where to go bringing you through the central street of the village to the beginning of an unsurfaced road which looked quite in bad conditions but however seemed practicable.

And then it became a terrible adventure! After the first bend the narrow road began to be covered by mud and puddles. It was clear that it was impossible neither to turn the car nor to stop because otherwise we would have gone blocked in the mud. It was quite a terrifying thought but however we also had to go very slowly because otherwise we would have slid out of the road. We covered about 2 km scared as if we were watching a horror movie but - I don�t know how - we succeeded and arrived to the church, even if maybe we were more worried about the return (in the end fortunately we did it again) than interested in the visit.

The church looks much as a common and typical countryside …