History and heraldic signs

14th century
The village of Bystričany came into private hands in the last quarter of the 14th century. Until then, it was apparently a royal property managed and belonging to the castle district of Gray Stone. This is the first written mention of Bystričany. It is in the document of the Buda Chapter, issued on January 15, 1388. In this period, Bystrica ceased to be exclusively royal property and numerous noble families of landowners also began to alternately apply ownership and user rights to them.

15th century
The years 1431 – 1433 were the period of Hussite expeditions to Slovakia. They undertook expeditions to the wider area and to the upper Nitra. In 1470, units of the Polish army, which came to support the claims of the Polish prince to the Hungarian throne, were drawn to Ponitrím. Two years later, on the way back from the military campaign, they caused damage to the local population and several estates fell victim to them, including those from Bystrič.

16th century
The region in which Bystrica was located was poor at that time. That is also why some farmers decided to use the water from the stream, at that time called Bystrá, for the mill by their own initiative. The first mill was built in 1536 and was owned by the Laurinc family. A sawmill also belonged to the mill. Later, a second mill, owned by the Gavliaks, was added in the lower part of the village. They later leased it to miller Anton Švrček. Before the year 1554, a deadly plague gripped the inhabitants, after which the number of native inhabitants decreased significantly.

16th and 17th centuries
The lives of the inhabitants were affected by the Turkish conquests and their robberies. It reached as far as the upper Nitra valley. Many villages and towns were looted and burned. The worst was the raid in 1599, when the people of Bystrič were also experiencing bad times. Only Horný Kamenec was saved, as its inhabitants paid taxes to the usurper.

18th century
At the turn of the 1860s and 1870s, a reform of the conditions prevailing in the feudal countryside took place throughout Hungary, also known as the urban regulation of Maria Theresa. At this time, 39 subjects were shared by the Majténi family, the Harón Ján Huňady, the Gáfor family and others. In 1787, a local chaplaincy was established in the village. It was a small church or chapel where priest Alojz Krausz from Oslian worked. The rectory was located at the upper end of the village, the so-called the old parsonage on Sabatka.

19. century
The year 1805 dates back to the establishment of a separate parish in the village. Three years later, in 1808, a new church was consecrated in the village - the Church of the Holy Trinity. A parish school was established between 1810 and 1847 to educate the inhabitants. It had an average of up to 20 students every year. The basics of reading, writing and counting were taught there. In 1828, there were 98 houses and 686 inhabitants in the village, in 1842 the number of inhabitants increased to 704. As a unique village, we had a regional notary's office, which was established in 1874. Its territorial scope covered the people of Bystrič themselves with settlements Chalmová and Vieska, also to the surrounding villages. The first volunteer organization was established in the village in 1885. It was a volunteer fire department. In 1896, the large landowner Edmund Vépy Vogronič started building a forest narrow-gauge railway - a stretcher. It led from the Chalmová railway station to the Vtáčni¬ka forests.

20th century
In the past, municipalities were headed by a mayor and a notary. According to the available documents, the first notary in our village was Rudolf Vitko (from 1900) and the mayor was Jozef Kollár (from 1901). From the notes of the former all-round citizen of Bystričany, Ján Plachý, it is clear that our people saw the first car passing through Bystričany in 1905. Water was collected for the radiator at a well near the present-day post office. In 1910, the first factory for the production of chairs of the well-known Thonet brand began to be built in the village.

Heraldic signs

The coat of arms of the village of Bystričany consists of three large golden spikes placed in a green shield. They are flanked on the sides by silver plowshares - the plowshare and the blade. They are shown with the tips up and the blade inwards.


The Bystričian flag is made up of seven horizontal stripes. The colors alternate in it: green, yellow and white. It is finished with three tips.

The symbols of our village were created by Prof. PhDr. Jozef Novák, DrSc. They are registered in the Heraldic Register of the Slovak Republic under the signature HR 37/B-39/95.