The village was already mentioned in the charter of the Szentmárton Benedictine Order from 1001 as the village of the abbeys. Its parish was first mentioned in written sources in 1362. The foundation stone of the church dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin was laid by the abbot on 6 June 1749. The work was completed on 19 June 1750. This simple, timberframed building without a tower stood on the site of the current church’s transept. Its sanctuary was where today’s sacristy stands, where fragments of old frescoes can still be seen. The current church was built and consecrated in 1872. The high alter and the early Baroque pulpit arrived in Nyalka at the same time as the Storno renovation of the Pannonhalma monastery. The altar of St Benedict is the work of the Adami stone carving dynasty, who were active around Como. The high altarpiece was created by Austrian painter Carl Gutsch in 1872. The body of the pulpit is separated by twisted columns and features statues of the four apostles and Christ in shell-shaped recesses. The statue of St Michael defeating the dragon on the pulpit’s crown is an excellent sculptural work. The former ornate gate of the Pannonhalma Basilica, Porta Speciosa, also found its way here. This gilded, panelled door with two brown and black wings, through which you can enter the sacristy from the main nave, is excellent carpentry work from the first quarter of the 18th century.
Nyalka-Kishegy was the wine-growing estate of the Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma, which is crossed by the Way of St James leading to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.There is an ecumenical memorial column carved from oak at this point in the Hungarian stretch of the “El Camino” pilgrimage way. The greetings and symbols of the Catholic, Reformed, Evangelical and Unitarian denominations, as well as the symbol of the pilgrimage way of St James and the tree of life motif were created by Ferenc and Csilla Gál-Tóth. “Set off, so that you can arrive”, reads the pilgrims’ slogan on the 500kg column, blessed and consecrated by representatives of the four churches on 31 May 2013.