Location: Krásnohorské Podhradie, Košice Region Map
Constructed: 13th century
Krásna Hôrka Castle is a medieval citadel situated in a village of Krásnohorské Podhradie in Košice Region in Slovakia. Krásna Hôrka Castle was constructed in 13th century by Ákos family who later switched the name to Bebek family. The castle was owed by this clan until 1578 when it was transferred to Hungarian noble Péter Andrássy. His family reconstructed the citadel to make more livable and lost its possession in 1918. Today Krásna Hôrka Castle is nationalized and holds a museum of medieval weapons. It was badly damaged by fire in 2012, but reconstruction is underway to restore the interior of the fortress to its previous glory.
The castle was built to protect the medieval road that led through
the mining areas of the Slovak Ore Mountains. It probably stands on the
site of an older fortified settlement, which in 1241 provided a refuge
to King Bel IV before the Tartars. The king donated large estates in
Gemeri to the Ákoš family (from whom the Bebek family came), where they
also settled and ruled on the Krasnohorské estates for more than 300
years.
The original castle, which was built sometime in the 13th
century, consisted of a prismatic tower and a residential palace with a
common fortification. In 1441, Spark's army occupied Gemer, but it did
not destroy the castle, and when the garrison left the castle, it
belonged to the Bebek family again until 1566. The threat of a Turkish
invasion and the struggle for the royal throne forced František Bebek in
1546 to build a new fortification designed by the Italian architect A.
de Vedano. Its castle, Fiľakovo, was also attacked and occupied by the
Turks. After finding out that the Turks had seized Fiľakov with the
emperor's consent, he attacked his troops and attacked the aristocratic
residences in the area. The injured demanded that Bebek be punished by
exile, and after his son Juraj spent 5 years in Turkish captivity and
was suspected of an organized uprising against the emperor. His troops
thus occupied Bebek's property, and in 1567 the Bebek family also died
in Transylvania in the death of Juraj.
The royal captains took
turns at the castle, which did not help the castle very much until the
young, ambitious Peter Andráši got to the castle. When the castle was
leased for a long time, it began at the end of the 16th century with the
reconstruction of the castle, which eventually lasted 100 years. In
1642, the Andráš family acquired the castle by a deed of donation and
gradually rebuilt it into an aristocratic representative seat, which
contained all the elements of ingenious defense. Juraj Andráši,
Mikuláš's son, became the founder of a new branch of the family. The
castle was renovated after 1710, at the same time as the Betliar manor
house, which was owned by his brother Štefan. The Baroque chapel was
created by rebuilding the cannon bastion in 1770. The castle burned down
in 1818 and was repaired in an emergency by Štefan's wife. His son Juraj
continued to work, and Krásna Hôrka finally became their family museum
in 1857, which was opened to the public after 1875. In 1903, Count
Dionýz Andráši established a reverent museum of Countess Františka
Hablawcová in the castle. After the restoration of the castle in the
years 1903 - 1905, the influential Andráš family maintained their
positions until 1945. Since then, the castle has been the property of
the state and after its monumental restoration it is open to the public
again.
On Saturday, March 10, 2012, a fire broke out in the
castle. The shingled roofs, the exhibition in the upper Gothic palace
and the bell tower burned down. The ceiling was broken in the
congregation hall. Firefighters saved 90 percent of the exhibits, but
the inner parts of the castle grounds remained smoky. The damage was
estimated at 8 million euros. The fire spread after careless handling of
the open fire. From the burning grass, a shrub on the slopes of the
castle hill ignited, from where the fire quickly spread to the roofs of
the castle. The roof of the castle was completely destroyed, but in
December 2012 the roof was replaced by a wooden temporary roof, which
will be replaced in April 2013. Work was stopped for the Christmas
holidays, after which repairs began on the roof and in the interior. In
March 2013, work continued.
According to the current estimate,
the lower and middle part of the castle should be opened to the public
in 2021. The upper part of the castle will not be opened until later due
to extensive damage and ongoing archaeological research.
Exterior
At the highest point of the hill, there is a palace with
a defensive tower, below which are other fortified palaces, a chapel and
other residential and farm buildings, documenting the gradual expansion
of the castle grounds. The castle originally consisted only of a tower
with a defensive wall, to which a residential palace was added. The
building was enclosed by a fortification and entered through a gate.
František Bebek made extensive building alterations in the middle of the
16th century. The castle acquired a triangular floor plan with
semicircular bastions on the corners. The original castle thus got to
the middle of the area. The entrance to the castle was blocked from the
southeast by a new multi-storey half-cylinder bastion. In front of the
southwest bastion was the second entrance to the castle - a gate with a
drawbridge. There was a wide fence wall between the south-eastern and
north-eastern bastions, and heavy cannons cast in 1545 and 1547 still
stand on the terrace. At the same time, they also modified the castle
interiors. The Andráš family turned the upper castle into a
representative seat and completed the lower castle in particular. They
built a new gate under the cannon bastion, which extended the lower
courtyard and closed it with a residential tract for the crew and
stables below. In the second half of the 17th century, they built a
representative residential wing between the south-eastern bastion and
the third gate in front of the south-western bastion, connected it with
the castle palace and built a county council hall on the upper floor.
They built a covered Renaissance porch and a staircase to the
representational spaces. They increased the palace space by one floor
and built a new building in the courtyard between the palace and the
north wall. A bakery and a kitchen were built on the west side of the
lower castle. In the 1930s, they built a small representational
courtyard, the Baroque chapel before entering the castle in 1770, the
Andráš family had a horseshoe-shaped bastion rebuilt above the entrance
to the chapel, and at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries they built
a crypt in the ground floor and wings of reverent spaces. Thus, the
reconstruction of the castle into a family museum was completed and the
last modification was the reconstruction of the Žilina Monuments Office
in the second half of the 20th century.
Interior
The
specialized permanent castle exposition presents fortification
construction from the 13th to the 18th century, basic information about
the castle and its owners. The exposition is located in three parts of
the castle, in the oldest part (the core of the castle) there is an
exposition dedicated to the ancient past - prehistory of the eastern
part of Gemer, rare exhibits of Romanesque and Gothic times (military
equipment), handicrafts in the castle and its surroundings. The torture
chamber documents examples of unique tools used in coercion. Rare is a
collection of medieval weapons: stabbing, cutting, cutting, drums and
multipurpose (halberds, spears, maces, swords), a collection of firearms
(castle rifles, pistols and historical works) and a collection of
weapons of oriental origin. The residential area of the middle castle
is dominated by the original 17th century furnishings, which are closely
connected with the history of the castle (the meeting hall of the county
congregations, a large decorative cabinet from the end of the 17th
century) and another rare collection of historical furniture and
paintings. In the four rooms of the Bebek wing there is a reverential
museum, a castle chapel with a classicist interior, a rare painting of
the Madonna of Krásnohorská from 1739 and a family tomb of the Andráš
family next to the chapel. In the lower castle, one of the most
interesting rooms of the tract is the castle kitchen, with an open
fireplace and original equipment, and a music lounge with a rare
collection of musical instruments.
Approach
To the village
SAD, public transport Rožňava. From the village, a road (3 km) leads to
the castle by car to the parking lot in front of the castle. On foot
along the road from the mausoleum through the village 1/2 h, or along
(from the west side) from the road to Pače also 1/2 h.