The Holy Stairs are located in the Franciscan Order’s Immaculate Conception Church. The construction of the Holy Stairs Chapel was ordered by Pál Pálffy together with the construction of the monastery. There are Holy Stairs in three places in the world: the stairs of the original Pretorium of Pilate, which Jesus ascended, were taken to Rome. Copies of these can be seen in Jerusalem and in Malacky. The latter consists of twenty-seven steps, into which the relics of St Deterius, St Valentine and St Beatrix were placed.
When the Balassa family line died out in 1621, Malacky came into the Pálffy family’s possession. Pál Pálffy’s (IV) forceful re-catholicisation in the area, including ordering the construction of the Franciscan monastery and church with its underground crypts. The monastery was given to the Franciscans in 1653. The church still had no altar, organ or pulpit at this time, so it was only consecrated in December 1660 by Csanád (Chanad) bishop, Tamás Pálffy. The church is connected to the monastery by both corridors and the gallery. The church’s nave is Baroque in style. It is girded by chapels at the sides and closed in the front by the sanctuary where the main altar is located. An epitaph of Miklós Pálffy (V) is situated on the left of the sanctuary, created in his memory by his grandchildren, Lipót, Miklós and Rudolf. Johann Nikolaus Moll is named as the work’s creator. When entering the church, every visitor is stopped in their tracks by the stunning 18th-century, carved wooden high altar, which is painted and richly gilded. Like the church, the altar was also consecrated in the honour of the immaculate conception. This is also evidenced by the central motif of the rear, decorative part – a larger than life-size statue of the Virgin Mary (the immaculate conception).
The parish church at the lower end of the village is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Malacky. It was built by the protestant Balassa family. The single-naved, polygonal sanctuary church was built around 1574. It has been in the hands of the Catholic Church since 1621. The late Renaissance-style tower was added in 1672. The most valuable item among the sacral relics in the interior is the pulpit dating from the second half of the 17th century. The altar’s central, main image depicts the Most Holy Trinity; the painting was done in the middle of the 19th century. The church has two side altars, one is the Lourdes Virgin Mary altar, the second the Heart of Jesus altar. There is a crypt beneath the church.