Alekšince ( hu, Elecske) is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

and a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the Nitra District in western

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

, in the Nitra Region.

History

According to archeological evidence, the area was inhabited since the

paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

. The investigations on Maďaroš hill also revealed a settlement from the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

. Several items from the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

and the Roman imperial period were discovered as well. In historical records, the village was first mentioned in 1156 when Martirius, the archbishop of

Esztergom Esztergom ( ; german: Gran; la, Solva or ; sk, Ostrihom, known by alternative names) is a city with county rights in northern Hungary, northwest of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom County, on the right bank of the river Danu ...

, donated church lands in 70 villages to the Esztergom canonry in order to improve the economic welfare of the canons. One the villages of the

archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that o ...

ry was "villa Alexu"- known today as Alekšince. A deed of donation from 1275 by the king Ladislaus IV of Hungary lists the first owner: knight Deuse, who died during a

Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

invasion in 1241–1242. In this deed, the village appears under the name of Elekchy.

Coat of arms

Since the 18th century, the official seal has been in use. The seal depicts a female figure with an aureole,

Saint Anne According to Christian apocryphal and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come o ...

, the patron saint of the village. On June 18, 1996, the local council authorized the coat of arms and an official village seal and flag. The coat of arms is a heraldic stylization of

, who is usually depicted as a woman carrying a child and a book (Saint Anne was the mother of

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

). The book in the coat of arms represents the

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

, that promises the arrival of the Messiah, which Saint Anne uses to teach her daughter. The lily symbolizes the virginity of Mary. In Christian tradition, the combination of the two symbols is used exclusively for Saint Anne. The colour combination is determined by green as the main colour associated with Saint Anne. The book is yellow (golden) and the lily is white (gray). Alekšince's coat of arms therefore depicts a green field with silver lily over a closed golden book.

Geography

The

lies at an

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

of 160 metres and covers an

area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape A shape or figure is a graphics, graphical representation of an obje ...

of . Total area: 1507 ha *Agricultural land: 1322.8 ha *Arable land: 1255 ha *Vineyards: 68.8 ha *Non-agricultural land: 183,2 ha *Forest land: 21 ha *Built-up area: 134.2 ha

Population

Alekšince has a total population of 1673. There are: 809 men 864 women The age distribution is the following: *Pre-working age (0-14): 248 *Working-age men (15-59): 573 *Working-age (15-54):501 *Post-working-age men (60+):127 *Post-working-age women (55+):224 The village is approximately 98% Slovak. The nationalities are as follows: *Slovak: 1641 *Hungarian: 7 *Romani: 2 *Rusyns: 1 *Czech: 4 *Other: 3 *Not specified: 15

Facilities

The village has a public

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

, a gym, and a football pitch. There is also an elementary school and a kindergarten.

Genealogical resources