Monastery

The Monastery at Skalka was founded by James, Bishop of Nitra, in 1224. There both the cave and the Church were dedicated to St. Benedict the Martyr, located on the bishopric property. The monastery's monks were given the right to receive alms and their donors were granted 40-day indulgences in return. The monks were also given the privilege of preaching and hearing confessions throughout the diocese of Nitra. In 1297, the Foundation Charter of the Monastery was confirmed and it was determined that the Abbott of Skalka could collect tithes from his own subjects.

The existence of a monastic scriptorium, where books were manually transcribed and bound, is documented in the 14^th and 15^th century. The Monastery at Skalka was an important spiritual and book centre of the Central Váh region for the  period in question. However, the importance of the Monastery began to decline quickly in the mid  16^th century and its properties passed to the hands of various owners. More than a hundred years later the Jesuits acquired the monastery at Skalka and a new period of prosperity was to begin.

Skalka near Trenčín is a place connected with the oldest legend from the period of the Kingdom of Hungary—“The Life of Sts Hermits Svorad the Confessor (Andrew Zorazd) and Benedict (of Skalka) the Martyr”—written by Saint Maurus, Bishop of Pécs. There is an entrance into the Benedict's Cave inside the Monastery—a rocky early Gothic portal dating back to the 13^th and 14^th centuries. The cave is considered one of the oldest publicly accessible caves in Slovakia.