Location: Boldogkőváralja, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County Map
Found: 1282
Tel. +3646387703
Official site
Boldogkő Castle is a medieval castle on a cliff rising on the
eastern side of the valley of the Hernád River, in the immediate
vicinity of Boldogkőváralja. The Miocene andesite tuff Bodókő Hill,
on which the castle stands, is part of the Zemplén Landscape
Protection Area. Due to the beauty of the landscape and the
relatively good condition of the castle, it is a popular hiking
destination, which is one of the stops of the National Blue Tour.
The earliest part of the castle (an old tower surrounded by a
fortification) was probably built after the Tartar invasion and was
erected either by Ispán Tyba, son of Jaak of the tribe of Tomaj, or
by Judge Aba Amadé. When Károly Róbert Anjou chased the Aba, the
castle came to the Drugeth family, which was loyal to him, and later
to Péter Czudar. In the 15th century, it became the property of
Serbian princes István and György, and then of the Szapolyai family.
In Turkish times, he often changed hands as one of the venues for
the intense battles between the emperor and the king. It was
acquired by the conquering György Rákóczi in 1666, later it became
important several times in the Kuruc times, but even before the
Rákóczi War of Independence, in 1701, it was made uninhabitable by
the emperors. The ruin was taken possession of by the Jesuits in the
18th century, who used it as a grain warehouse. Later it became the
property of the Péchy and then the Zichy family, who, however, no
longer lived in the uncomfortable fortress, instead using a baroque
castle built in the area of the serf village. Despite the bombing
of imperial soldiers and the devastating centuries that followed, it
is one of our best-preserved medieval castles.
The
state-owned building complex, which has been in state ownership
since 1945, began research in 1963 under the leadership of
archaeologist Katalin Végh, which was conducted several times over
the following decades. The salvage also took place in several
stages, the towers were given a protective roof, and after 2009
several parts of the building were restored with the support of the
European Union. The exhibition halls have been modernized, so today
you can see, among other things, the castle's unique industrial
monument, the 16th-century smelter, which was once used to produce
bronze for counterfeiting.
Its location
According to the micro-region
cadastre prepared by the Geographical Research Institute of the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the castle hill and its surroundings
are located in the Great Northern Central Mountains, including the
Tokaj-Zemplén Mountains and the Central-Zemplén Small Landscapes.
However, in terms of its vegetation, population density and typical
land use, the Abaúji-Hegyalja micro-region also bears similar
features to the surroundings of the settlements in the Hernád
Valley.
The castle is located in the immediate vicinity of
Boldogkőváralja, on a hill made of volcanic andesite tuff, which is
geologically part of the volcanic Prešov-Tokaj Mountains. The fort
is in the Hernád Valley, 13–14. century was suitable for control
over routes, so its military and economic importance follows from
its construction site.
History
Origin
According to the
most accepted theory, the castle is first mentioned in a charter
dated 1295 as “Castrum Boldua”, which describes that the son of Jaak
of the genus Tomaj, Tyba ispán III. In return, King Andrew received
the castle of Boldua, now called Boldogkő, earlier, IV. He received
from King László for the castles of Rezy and Rez (now Várvölgy). A
charter dated in Szeged around 1280 also mentions a similar
exchange, which in turn does not name Boldua, but includes Tyba and
the names of the exchange estates, so it is assumed that it could be
the same exchange transaction as above.
It should be
mentioned, however, that the identification of the above Castrum
Boldua with the Castle of Blessed Stone is not clear, and there is
no other information on the possession of the Tomajs in Abaúj other
than the above diploma.
Based on these, the oldest parts of
the castle probably stood as early as 1280, a member of the Tomaj
clan, according to some assumptions, built it in Tyba itself during
the post-Tartar stone castle construction. However, it cannot be
ruled out that he was a member of the Aba clan, among them Aba
Amadé, who had great influence in the Abaujian territories in the
late 13th and early 14th centuries.
The era of the Aba clan
Although we do not know clearly whether the builder was of the Tomaj
or Aba clans, it is certain that from the beginning of the 1300s the
lords of the castle were the Abaks, who had significantly increased
provincial ownership during the interregnum after the extinction of
the Árpád House. The owner of the castle, Judge Aba Amadé, was
assassinated in 1311 during the riots in Kassa. After that, Károly
Róbert also had to take action against the sons of Amadé (Ispán
János from Abaúj, Ispán László from Hungary, and Miklós and Dávid).
The Treaty of Košice was concluded with them on October 3, 1311, in
which they nominally renounced several of their estates and
surrendered to the King. However, the opposition soon escalated
again, but the resistance of the Amadé sons in the Battle of Rozgony
was broken. They surrendered again, returning the illegally occupied
royal castles, although Boldogkő and Nevicke, as well as the
Hungarians, were still in their hands. In the battle of Debrecen
they fought on the side of the king (among the sons, the conversion
of János Aba was certain), by 1317 they were pushed back to the
territory of Ung county. In the autumn of the same year, they
revolted again and occupied Tiba Castle, but the king soon inflicted
a decisive defeat on them again. The sons of Amad were forced to
leave the land and their possessions confiscated.
In the
hands of the Drugeths
After the confiscation, Boldogkő Castle
became the property of a Drugeth family of French-Italian origin
loyal to King Anjou. The owner was Drugeth Philip, a man from Novi
Sad who proved to be a loyal subject in the king's battle for the
throne, and was succeeded by Vilmos Drugeth around 1339. It is
probable that until 1351 the castle was owned by the family.
Presumably, they built several buildings of the upper castle: the
palace wing connected to the old tower and the columnar tower
protecting it. The Drugeths usually entrusted the castle to the care
of German and Italian deputies. In 1331, for example, Lukács Német
was the castle mate, followed by János Olasz around 1335, who was
mentioned in several diplomas until 1342 and probably held the
office of castle mistress until 1350. In 1351 Péter Poháros, a
former castle lord of Salánc, in 1352 Kelemen headed the castle.
Changes of ownership in accordance with Articles 14-15. century
It is not known who was the owner of the castle after the Drugeths
from 1351, but it was already mentioned in 1383 as part of the royal
estate. Afterwards, it was still a royal castle in 1388, but in the
same year it became the property of a former ban and judge of Peter
Cudar, when King Sigismund, together with the villages belonging to
it, pledged it for 8838 gold forints. According to the terms of the
pledge, after the death of Peter the descendants of the castle were
also pledged.
The castle later fell into the hands of rebels,
from whom it was recaptured by Péter Perényi in 1403 and made
available to the king. After 1422, István Lazarevics and then, from
1427 to 1453, György Brankovics owned a Serbian despot together with
the castles of Tállya, Tokaj, Regéc and Munkács, all of whom were
László, the son of Mihály Geszti. From 1443 Sándor Helembai, from
1453 László and Bálint Sarkus, then Bálint Barakori and Dénes,
István Alpári and Tamás Salánki headed the castle.
After
1456, Boldogkő Castle reappeared among the royal castles. Shortly
afterwards, in 1461, King Matthias donated his paraphernalia to his
brothers, Pál and László, to whom, in addition to the village under
the castle, Rád, Baskó, Szerencs, Újfalu and Arka belonged. The
castle was then pledged to Kassa between 1467 and 1471. It is
probable that he was already part of the Košice estate before,
because in a letter dated 1464, Mátyás gave Kassa various discounts,
in return for which he became the property of Imre Szapolyai. In
this document, the castle is mentioned for the first time under the
name of today's Boldogkő.
In 1471 it was again mentioned as a
royal castle, the accessories of which at that time were the
villages of Vizsoly, Szerencs, Novaj, Abatelke, Újfalu, Arka, Rád
and Baskó. Later it came into the possession of the Szapolyai
family, but before 1526 János Szapolyai donated it to István
Tomori's son, György, as a baptismal gift. During the time of István
Tomori, Bíró Bíró Mátyás, a Catholic who was still a Catholic at the
time, served as a chaplain in the castle.
In the 15th
century, great expansions were made to the castle. On the south
side, an irregular rectangular tower was erected, to which a plank
wall was attached. A horseshoe-shaped gate tower with a connecting
protective wall and an outer wall surrounding the palace on the east
side were built.
At the time of the Mohács disaster
After
the defeat of Mohács, the castle often changed hands between
Ferdinand I and János Szapolyai, who fought in the Highlands. The
many changes of ownership were compounded by the fact that the
current owners often continued to donate the castle to their
faithful during this period. In 1527, for example, the palatine
István Báthori, fighting on the side of Ferdinand, acquired it
together with several other estates by donation, but Szapolyai
recovered it from him together with the castle of Regéc already in
1528, at the cost of a siege. In August of this year, Ferdinand
marched under the castle again with an army. His followers, Gáspár
Serédi and Chief Captain Ferenc Bebek, forced the castle lord to
surrender and non-attack under a six-week, presumably successful
siege. However, by 1530, Tamás Nádasdy, the agent of Szapolyai,
again managed the affairs of the castle, who also repulsed the
attempt to recapture Ferenc Bebek and Rupert Herberstein. After
that, the castle was owned by Tomory Egyed, from whom it was bought
by Cardinal György Fráter Martinuzzi. However, it was not long in
his possession, for in 1537 it was again occupied by Ferdinand's
armies under the leadership of Lénár Fels.
After the country
was divided into three parts
In 1542, Ferdinand exchanged him for
the castle of Gyula with Ferenc Patóchy, whose daughter, Zsófia,
married Ferenc Bebek's son, Baron György Bebek. György inherited
huge estates as the last male heir of the family, through this
marriage, in 1556, Boldogkő became the property of the Bebek family,
among several estates. György, similarly to the one in the castle of
Csorbakő, set up a counterfeit-minting workshop here, the smelting
furnace of which was found during the excavations. This find is the
earliest, authentic, excavated memory of Hungarian bronze
production. In 1559 András Berényi Espán was the castle chief. In
1560, Bebek exchanged the castle with István Mihály Sárközy for the
captured Turkish leader, Pasha Amha.
Among the people living
in the castle, Bálint Balassi is worth mentioning from this age, who
wrote his poem for Borivók here. Balassi was in this landscape in
the 1580s, as evidenced by a letter from Szikszó in 1584 and
Abaújszántó in 1585.
István Sárközy's son later sold the
castle to the Serényi family. II. In 1578, Rudolf confirmed the
property rights of Gábor Serényi and Mihály and their wives with the
right to inherit descendants of both sexes. The castle eventually
passed entirely to Mihály Serényi's brother, Ferenc and his
descendants. After the death of Mihály Sárközi, his wife, Zsófia
Bajony, took action against this method of inheritance, who tried to
invalidate the will. During the protracted litigation, the castle
was entrusted to the care of Miklós Perlaky. However, the
acquisition of the estate probably did not succeed, and the castle
was bought in 1612 by Ferenc Serényi, the lord of Nedec Castle,
György Horváth Palochay. After his death in 1617, he was inherited
by his son, Gábor, and then by his grandson, István. From 1627,
probably by pledge, Mátyás Szikszay became the owner, then from 1630
János Várkonyi became the owner, then the castle was returned to the
Palochay family.
During his campaign against Habsburg in 1666, the
Transylvanian prince György I. Rákóczi conquered Upper Hungary,
during which he did not occupy the castle of Boldogkő, but fighting
was also probable in this area. In 1646, György commissioned Pál
Szemere to inquire with the chamber about the estate belonging to
the Castle of Boldogkő, although his intentions in this regard are
unknown.
The border line was somewhat far from the castle, so
it had no direct military role in the fighting against the Turks,
only records of a battle with a few Turkish troops raiding the
Highlands. However, when on September 13, 1663, the counties of
Upper Hungary held a meeting in Kassa and decided to issue an
anti-Turkish army, the castle played an important role: under the
leadership of Gábor Bakos, the army gathered in Boldogkő Castle. One
of the most outstanding family friends of Archbishop György
Szelepcsényi of Esztergom was János Terjék of St. János Terjék
served as the officer of the castle of Boldogkő for almost a decade
(in 1675 János Hankony was already the foreman of the castle).
In 1671, Gábor and István Palochay officially pledged the castle
with all its accessories to Archbishop György Szelepcsényi of
Kalocsa and Esztergom, the royal chancellor, who owned it until his
death in 1685. The first detailed inventory of the castle was made
in his time, which is kept in the Catholic parish of
Boldogkőváralja.
In kuruc times
The castle was besieged
several times during Kuruc times, but could not be occupied. The
castle defenders also repulsed the siege of the Kuruc insurgents in
1674 and 1675, in which Castle Ferenc Becskereky may have played an
important role. To prevent the spread of resistance movements, the
emperor ordered several castles to be rendered unusable, including
Füzér, Szerencs, Kisvárda and Boldogkő. In some cases this meant
blasting, in others it ignited wooden structures, and destroyed
defenses. In the case of Boldogkő Castle, this destruction was
probably not fatal, as it was used later.
In 1678, Thököly,
at the head of the Hiding Kurucs, occupied Northern Hungary and took
over this castle, which was then headed by Ferenc Fajgil. On his
instructions, a very detailed castle inventory was made again in
1682, which also included a description of the villages registered
as its accessories (Boldogkőváralja, Arka, Alsóméra, Vilmány). [13]
At the Parliament of Košice in 1683, Thököly announced that he would
rebuild the castles in his possession on his own. However, this was
prevented by the ceasefire in Vienna, which declared that the
estates of the Archbishop of Esztergom were undisturbed. Later,
according to the will of György Szelepcsényi, the owner of the
castle became the chapter of Esztergom from 1685.
In the
autumn of 1685, Pasha Ahmed of Oradea captured Thököly with the
intention of delivering peace to the Turks, who had suffered one
defeat after another, at the hands of the Viennese court. To this
news, the guards of the still-occupied castles took turns to
surrender to the advancing imperial army, so that the castle of
Boldogkő also fell into the hands of the Habsburg mercenaries
without striking a sword.
Demolition and afterlife of the
castle
In 1701, the sent imperial detachment blew up some of the
castle's fortifications, as well as the old tower, the residential
tower and the palace. The ruined fortress did not play a military
role in the Kuruc War of Independence, however, since in 1715 a
grain warehouse was set up in the buildings owned by the Jesuits of
Levoča, its walls were not demolished. It was bought from them in
1753 by the royal councilor Gábor Péchy of Pécsújfalu, who lived not
in the uncomfortable and dilapidated fortress, but first in the
mansion under the castle and then in the baroque castle built in
1768 in the valley serf village.
At the end of the 19th
century, the landowner Péchy family carried out restoration work on
the ruined fortress, supplementing some of the demolished castle
walls and replacing the windows and doors of the palace with pointed
arches. For this reason, in many places it is not possible to
determine what the earlier, medieval design of the opening frames
might have been. The family owned the castle until the end of the
century, and after the death of Count Manó Péchy in 1889, he was
inherited by his daughter, Rezsőné Zichy Péchy Jequelin. Thus the
castle, together with the Péchy estates, fell into the hands of the
Zichy family, whose possession lasted until the 20th century
nationalization.
Monument protection and restoration
The castle was nationalized in 1945 along with
4,000 cadastral acres of land. In 1952, the Miskolc Design Institute
of the Ministry of Construction carried out a detailed survey of the
remaining ruins.
Research into its ruins began in the summer
of 1963 on behalf of the National Monument Inspectorate, led by
archaeologist Katalin Kemenczeiné Végh, who published a detailed
monograph on the finds in 1966. [16] At that time, parts of the
lower castle, including the gate tower, the shaft in front of the
entrance, the courtyard (also known as the gorge), the truncated
bastion and the south tower, were excavated.
In 2002, further
excavation work began, during which the gate bastion and the south
tower were given a protective roof, and an aisle was built on the
wall of the lower courtyard, and a lookout point was erected on the
southern rock outcrop on the site of the former observation bastion.
In 2009, the reconstruction continued with the support of HUF 133
million from the European Union, during which additional protective
roofs were established, the dry mill, the northern fortification and
the gate of the lower castle were restored.
Parts
Lower
Castle
Lower yard
The castle can be entered through a
semicircular gate bastion, to the entrance of which a wooden bridge
leads today, in its place there was once a drawbridge. There are
portholes in the bastion, and the openings to the outside and to the
courtyard are framed in neo-Gothic style. Archaeological excavations
have revealed that the foundation of the bastion is approximately
150 cm deep and that there are pile holes at the courtyard entrance,
which are probably traces of a wooden fortification from the time
before the construction of the gate bastion, such as a plank wall.
Through the courtyard gate of the gate tower, it is possible to
enter the wall gorge between the inner and outer castle walls, ie
the lower courtyard. On the western outer, thick wall of a passer-by
runs along it, on the wall there are portholes narrowing outwards.
In the north-eastern corner there is a staircase leading to the
cellar under the palace, and in the south-eastern part there is a
steep, rock-cut staircase leading to the entrance of the upper
courtyard about 8 meters higher. More than a hundred pile holes were
found in the western half of the courtyard, which may be traces of a
structure earlier than the western castle wall, probably a double
plank wall filled with earth.
Truncated bastion
To the
north of the lower courtyard stands the truncated bastion, the wall
of which is a continuation of the western outer wall, and to the
east it joins the triangular bastion of the palace. The edifice,
along with the outer, partisan defensive walls and gate tower, may
have been built in the 15th century. At the bottom of the truncated
bastion wall, two cannon guards were excavated, above which stood
portholes and windows that could be accessed from an aisle. The
bastion was bounded on the south by a 60 cm thick, 140 cm high wall
built above the cellar entrance. The interior of the building was
divided into rooms with several walls.
The fragmentary
filling of the bastion, which may be the result of an explosion in
1701, provided archaeologists with a wealth of finds: iron utensils
and various stove tiles were found. One of the unglazed stove tiles
found here showed a cavalry soldier who, based on his appearance,
depicted clothing, and armament, could also be used to date some of
the finds: the stove tile is likely to have originated in the second
half of the 15th century.
During the archaeological
excavation in the bastion, approx. A sedimentation basin carved with
a horizontal bottom of 120 × 200 cm was found, with a small groove
on the southeast side. This may have served to wash the copper ore
in the castle foundry. Here, the remains of a smelter carved into
tuff were discovered, in which copper ore and tin could be smelted.
In the vicinity of these, bronze cakes and iron slags were found,
which proves that bronze production and forging iron were once
produced here. The technique of bronze casting found in this castle
evokes 16th century practice. Archaeologists have found that the
purpose of the bronze foundry in Lucky Stone may have been
counterfeiting. This is also supported by the fact that Archbishop
Ferenc Bebek and his brother Imre were well-known counterfeiters;
Under the truncated bastion, a four-branched cellar was formed,
the entrance to which is in the lower courtyard, next to the gate
opening.
South tower
The south tower is an irregular
rectangular structure bounding the lower courtyard to the south.
There are portholes on the walls of his floor, which were later
walled up. Previously, the tower had an entrance from the lower
courtyard, but this was removed; thereafter there was a crawl to the
east only through its gate facing the upper court. A rock-carved
pool and trenches were excavated in the tower, the layout of which
and other finds (eg fragmented millstones) suggest that a dry mill
operated here.
In front of the tower is a deep dungeon and an
exit that leads to an observation bastion at the end of the rock
tongue.
Upper Castle
The upper castle was built at the
top of the north-south ridge, on average 10–11 m above the lower
courtyard, to the east of it. The upper castle is a former part of
the building complex, consisting of the upper courtyard, the
triangular tower, the old tower and the palace.
Old tower
The oldest part of the castle is the 13th century old tower. At the
earliest stage of the castle stood only this building, which was
also used as a residential tower. Its north-western corner with a
strong structure still stands today, but several of its walls have
been severely destroyed. The internal dimension of the tower is
approximately 5.5 × 5.5 meters, and the wall thickness can be up to
2.80 meters in some places. Traces of its southern wall are barely
to be found, so the exact location of the entrance is not known.
After its construction, it was later remodeled, during which one
room was converted into a room with a stone wall in the southeast
corner. Near the east wall, a pile hole was excavated, which
probably indicates the location of the former, perhaps
spiral-stairway. At the eastern wall of the old tower, the remains
of a small 8 × 2.85 meter bastion were found, which is also the
result of a later remodeling.
Attached to the southeast
corner of the old tower was a room with brick pillars, which could
be framed from the east by the eastern outer castle wall. Traces of
plaster remained on the wall of the room, and its walking surface
was a carved rock surface. South of this structure, a
5.60-meter-deep, brick-lined dungeon was carved into the rock
surface of the ridge. Since there is no sign of an entrance, it is
likely that access to the dungeon was possible only through its
now-torn stone vault. An interesting find of the dungeon is two
metal coins, one of which is a Rákóczi coin of 1703, and a 1552 coin
of Ferdinand was found on the rock surface south of the dungeon.
To the north of the old tower stood a 26-meter-deep, closed
cistern surrounded by walls on three sides, probably built in the
time of the Drugeths. Due to its great depth, it can be assumed that
it was originally dug as a well, but the tuff stone, which quickly
absorbed water, proved unsuitable for this. Therefore, it was later
used partly as a rainwater catchment and partly filled with applied
water.
Residential tower and palace
At the northernmost
point of the upper castle is the palace and the triangular
column-shaped residential tower that protects it from the north.
Both buildings originated in the early 14th century, in the early
stages of the castle, but after the old tower, when an internal
tower fortification was built instead of the former obsolete old
tower arrangement during a major reconstruction. The Drugeth family,
who knew the Italian castle-building culture and owned the castle at
this time, may have played a major role in the reconstruction.
The triangular design of the residential tower is not common,
but it is not without precedent. This type of building probably came
to Hungary following the examples of Austria. The walls of the tower
have survived to this day, but its vaulted vaults have already
collapsed. Inside the building, at its northern end, are traces of a
circular rock-based structure that may have been a spiral staircase
leading to the floors of the tower. During a later remodeling, the
inside of the tower was filled with stone and sandy earth.
The palace building south of it is the same age as the tower, which
has also been partially preserved. There are four 20 × 120 cm
portholes at the bottom of the outer wall of the palace, above them
there are segmented arched windows made of flat stones on the first
floor. Today's windows are neo-Gothic in style. The vault of the
palace's interior, which dates back to the 16th century at the
earliest, has now collapsed. In the eastern half, there was only a
small backfill on the rock surface, but to the west, to compensate
for the subsidence of the terrain, a thicker backfill was used
during construction to create a horizontal walking surface. The
ground floor of the building was divided in two by a wall, so it
consisted of a smaller north and a larger south room. From the
debris filling above the palace level of the palace, various
objects, e.g. iron spoons, pottery fragments, half a millstone, and
an elongated grindstone were found.
Next to the east wall of
the building was an outer castle wall, which, although heavily
destroyed, can still be found to the remains of the old tower. It is
assumed that in the place of the east wall there was once a plank
wall, and at the corner of the palace there was a gate.
Its
natural environment
The castle is located in the Zemplén Mountains, on
top of the north-south block of volcanic andesite tuff on Bodókő
Hill. The Zemplén Mountains, like the other mountains in the
Northern Central, are of volcanic origin, but younger: they formed
in the late Miocene. The castle and its surroundings have been part
of the Zemplén Landscape Protection Area since December 1984.
The vegetation of the castle hill and its surroundings bears the
characteristics of the Abaúji-Hegyalja micro-region. The zonal
vegetation of the area to the west of the higher regions of Zemplén
may have originally been loess oak and cherry oak, which has no
surviving stands, and has probably fallen victim to local
viticulture with a long history. On the abandoned plots around the
village, the resettlement of the species of the former forests and
the newly settled steppe elements can be observed. Traces of the
former forests are indicated, for example, by the specimens of
dandelion (Prunus fruticosa), dwarf almond (P. tenella), Hungarian
chamois (Doronicum hungaricum), grasshopper (Iris graminea) and cat
clover (Phlomis tuberosa). Among the original steppe plant species,
the species Ortih hair (Stipa) are characteristic, as well as the
red snakehead (Echium maculatum), the cylindrical periwinkle (Inula
germanica), the mountain anemone (Pulsatilla montana), and the
Hungarian female petal (Iris aphylla subsp. Hungarica). .
Common habitat types in the area are hornbeam-sessile oaks,
heather-sessile oaks, beeches, hawthorn-blackthorn-juniper dry
shrubs, uncharacteristic dry-semi-dry grasslands, stony-sloping
steppes, and French-sown meadows.
Typical floodplains in the
landscape are the green maple (Acer negundo), the idol tree
(Ailanthus altissima), the duckweed (Amorpha fruticosa), the
silkworm (Asclepias syriaca), the alien asters (Aster spp.), The
Japanese bittersweet ), acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia) and goldenrod
(Solidago spp.).
Legends
The fairies of the castle
According to the legend about the origin of the castle, after the
battle of Muhi, the fugitive from the Tartars IV. King Béla entered
the village of Aszaló, where he found only an old drying master
named Bodó. He promised the king to save him: he gave him a serf
robe and hid it in a cellar. Two days later, the Tartars arrived,
but in the midst of their interrogation, Bodó pretended to be deaf
and misunderstood. When the Tartars ran up and left the old man,
Béla thanked him for his help and moved on. When the Tartars finally
withdrew and the king returned to the throne, Bodó set out for Buda
with seven chariots and seven daughters. There, in exchange for
earlier help, he received an inheritance from the king on the
condition that he build a castle to protect it. In Buda, Bodó's
daughters all found husbands, who built the castle for a year, which
was built in seven years. ARC. After the wedding, Béla said, "Let
this castle be called Blessed Stone, because the seven beautiful
girls, the seven fairies, were the happiest here!"
Curiosities
In the basement of the castle you can see the statues
of the retired high school principal István Borsos.
In the palace
wing of the castle you can see the Historical Lead Soldier
Exhibition, which presents, among other things, the battle of Muhi
in 1241, as well as the mineral exhibition.
At the foot of the
castle is a medieval restaurant called Castrum Boldua.
Jenő
Vécsey, a composer born in Hernádcéce, wrote a symphonic poem
entitled Boldogkő Castle in 1952, which was performed by the Miskolc
Symphony Orchestra in 1983, on the 700th anniversary of the castle
(the conductor was László Kovács).
Dezső Szabó wrote a short
story entitled Szent Boldogkőváralján.