Hrad Súľov was not the one and only castle of the region built literally on mountain rocks: I had an old dream come true by visiting Oroszlánkő vára (Vršatecký hrad) in person. Maybe it was not the most fascinating castle in the world since it was in ruins, but I had always admired the landscape and view surrounding this fantastic peak above today's village.

In spite of the fact that it became irrelevant and abandoned in modern history, it was a significant castle during the times of Sigismund of Luxemburg, who was not only the Holy Roman emperor, but also the king of Hungary due to his marriage with Mary of Anjou, daughter of Louis the Great.

After the death of Mary, he got married to Hungarian-Styrian countess Barbara of Cilli (in Hungarian: Cillei Borbála) who had the castle of Oroszlánkő, Trencsén and Zólyom as her royal property. By the way, in Slovene she is called Barbara Celjska, because she was the sister of Fridrik II Celjski, whose legendary love story is included in my article on Celje.

Later the Oroszlánkő castle also had an important role during the Kuruc uprisings and Rákóczi’s War of Independence in the early 18th century, because the army of Prince Imre Thököly captured the castle and set it on fire, although it was still repaired and used for military purposes. However, more than a century later, in the mid-19th century the place was already in ruins.

The reason is not always abandonment or a natural disaster: it was very common for example after the Rákóczi Wars that Austrians blew up important stone castles all around the historical Hungary not to let Hungarians use them in case of a future rebellion.

It is worth to mention the legend of the faithful castellan: an officer who was chained to his lord and imprisoned after Oroszlánkő was captured by the enemy; however, the castellan cut off his own leg in order to let his lord escape.

It is not clear in which historical period the story took place and who the exact parties were, but it is for sure that the mountain that hosts the castle creates an utterly different world where time just stops – or at least, it has a very slow pace. The two huge rocks above the village just look like an enermous stone gate leading you to the land of giants.

As a matter of fact, this Oroszlánkő is not the one and only abandoned castle with this name in the territory of the former Kingdom of Hungary.

In Vértes mountains, not so far from my home village, there is an other castle called Oroszlánkő ('Lionstone'), and if I tell you that this is where the Csák family was originally from, the name is not that big surprise taking the family’s coat-of-arms into account.

Not so far from Vršatské Podhradie (Oroszlánkő), along river Vág you may also find the castle of Vágbeszterce (in Slovak: Považská Bystrica) which does not have such a mystical location, nature and view as Oroszlánkő does, yet its castle is surely in the top three in our contest.

The castle belonged to the famous Podmaniczky family at some point, but before, of course, it also used to be a property of the Csák clan in the Middle Ages.

Its secret lies in the fact that the castle preserved its relatively good condition and original architecture style from the Gothic era, and you can really feel that you have just entered in a large fortress that one cannot capture so easily: high, thick walls everywhere, a wide courtyard and an amazing panorama were supporting this atmosphere, while a peaceful atmosphere was spreading all around the ruins.

I could observe many signs such as scaffoldings, bricks and boxes everywhere suggesting that the castle was to be reconstructed someday, and I truly hope it will succeed. That place would indeed deserve it. 

Speaking of the high walls: maybe they are very spectacular and unbelievable for visitors, but my friend who is an expert of history explained it to me that in spite of their height and massive structure, they were not the best solution for protection.

Therefore, since the Renaissance era, castles were shorter but with a more advanced defense system with the famous 'Italian outlines' and so-called ‘star-shaped’ floor plan.

I am not an expert of military issues, but I can tell you that from my aesthetic and poetic point of view old castles with high walls are just more magnetizing for me, regardless their funcitonality. 

We noticed a very similar structure just while having our first stop in Slovakia at Podhradie (in Hungarian: Kővárhely) and visited Tapolcsány castle (Topoľčiansky hrad).

The castle and its area were pure harmony: a fruitful combination of nature and history, and I immediately had the idea that this was a perfect place to write poems and have romantic evening dates. I could really belong to that hill and totally felt like home, although I had never been there – if not in some of my mystical dreams.

Since the castle was not completely in ruins and had its high walls and windows, we could still imagine how it could look like during its best days, while due to the architecture, the benches for tourists and their arrangement one could feel like being in an ancient amphitheater. I was not so far from the reality with this idea: apparently, the castle serves as an occasional theater as well.

The name of the castle also highlights an interesting fact: namely, that it is not always obvious where you will find the castle and where the town is that the castle is related to.

In this case, Tapolcsány, or Nagytapolcsány (in Slovak: Topoľčany) is further from the castle in an utterly different side of the hill, while Kistapolcsány (Topoľčianky) is even further. 

Although it does not have a particular story, I would like to mention Magasmajtény (in Slovak: Hrušov) castle too, which indeed has a landscape drawing attention.

Meadows, rocks and slopes were lying in every direction, while the vibes immediately reminded me to Drežnik Grad I had visited in Croatia before, but I would tell a lie if I did not say it honestly that I also felt in an abandoned countryside of Ireland or Scotland for a second. 

One interesting fact was that almost no one owned the castle through the history for more than ten years in a row – it is a bit exaggerated of course, but the ownership changed quite frequently.

The other fun fact is that we saw it in the board that there was a campaign meaning that if you buy a certain kind of chocolate, you support the reconstruction of the castle, and the stones, bricks, concrete-mixers, wheelbarrows and buckets also justified that the works had begun, just like at Vágbeszterce and Oroszlánkő.

Like in the case of the White Carpathians and Hrad Súľov, I also have some leftover pictures of these castle ruins I would like to show you, so pleae click on this link if you wish to see more!

Don't forget to join me next time either to see some of the 'most horroristic' castles of Slovakia!