Location:12 km North of Uzhhorod, Zakarpattia Oblast Map
Nevytsky
Castle is a dilapidated castle near the village of Kamianitsa,
Uzhhorod District, Zakarpattia Oblast, an architectural monument of
national significance (No. 194).
The castle was first
mentioned at the beginning of the 14th century. as a stronghold of
the local feudal rebellion against the royal authority of Charles
Robert of Anjou. In the 14th century the castle passes to the
possessions of the Druget Counts, who build a stone castle on the
site of the wooden castle. In 1644, during the religious wars, the
Transylvanian Prince Yuri I Rakotsi destroyed the castle.
The history of Nevytskyi Castle begins approximately in the 12th
century. Its construction was connected with the active pro-Russian
policy of the Hungarian kings, the growing role of mountain passes and
roads that led through the Carpathians to the north and east to Halych
and Kyiv. At that time, the castle was a small earthen fortification,
the fortifications of which consisted of ramparts and ditches.
In
March 1241, the Mongol-Tatars invaded Hungary through the Veretsky Pass
and destroyed the fortifications in Nevytskyi. In the second half of the
13th century, it was restored again. In 1279, the Hungarian king László
IV (1274-1290) transferred all the possessions of the Ung county and its
management to the Transylvanian voivode Finti from the Obo family. After
his death, his brother Omodei, who owned the castle until 1311, became
the owner of Uzhan Oblast and Nevytskyi Castle. In the Hungarian
kingdom, an era of infighting and the struggle of magnates for the royal
throne began. Omodei and his sons took an active part in it. The Nevytsi
fortress, which was the residence of the zhupan and his assistants, is
being strengthened. It was at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries
that a new quadrangular donjon was built on the site of the round tower,
and next to it was a 4.5 m deep well for collecting rainwater.
There was peace in the Uzhan region while old Omodei lived - a faithful
supporter of Charles Robert of the Anjou dynasty, who in a stubborn
struggle won the Hungarian royal throne (1301-1343). But when in 1311
the rebellious Kosice peasants killed Omodei, Karl Robert decided to
break the power of the Obo family in northeastern Hungary. However, the
castle in Nevytskyi remained in the hands of the Omodei. In 1317,
Laszlo, Omodei's son, again rebelled against the royal authority, but
was defeated. Nevytskyi Castle was stormed by royal troops.
A new
era in the history of the castle began in 1328, when Karl Robert
transferred it first to temporary, and from 1333 to permanent possession
of the Druget family. The deed of gift to the Drugets in 1343 was
confirmed by the new Hungarian king Louis I the Great. From that time
until the moment of the destruction of the fortress in the middle of the
17th century, it was the Drugets who owned the castle.
Until the
middle of the 15th century, Nevytskyi Castle was only nominally
considered the center of the Druget dominions in the Uzhan region. Here
they kept only their own castellan. The situation changed when a civil
war broke out in Hungary in 1440, and the Drugets again became prominent
figures in the country's political life. Constant military skirmishes
and the proliferation of firearms force the Drugets to partially rebuild
and significantly strengthen Nevytskyi, the only castle in the Uzhan
region.
The reconstruction was caused by a strict necessity,
because archaeologists find huge stone cannonballs with a diameter of up
to 25 cm in the objects of the middle of the XV century. The spread of
firearms required additional strengthening of the castle walls,
primarily from the eastern, most accessible side, and the construction
of an additional line of fortifications . For less vulnerability from
firearms, the outer stone wall was made lower. Additional complications
for the advancing enemy were created by a three-story tower protruding
to the south, which was connected to the central castle courtyard by a
two-story covered gallery 35 m long. in the second castle courtyard.
Eduard Balaguri, a leading scientist of the Institute of Carpathian
Studies of the Uzhhorod National University, professor, doctor of
historical sciences, says: "Archaeological and architectural studies
indicate that somewhere at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, the
castle acquired a modern appearance. The research also established that
there was a third defensive line on the eastern side, which consisted of
ramparts and wooden-clay structures. Ramparts enclosed a trapezoidal
space with two semicircular bastions. The remains of these ramparts are
clearly visible even now. Between the second and third defensive lines
there was a small post (0.7 hectares) where the artisan population lived
and worked, serving the owners of the castle (potters, blacksmiths,
etc.). In the event of an assault on the castle, the population hid
behind the reliable castle walls. Conventional calculations indicate
that the number of castle defenders together with the population of the
palisade could reach more than half a thousand people... But the castle
was not an unshakable citadel and often changed hands, especially in the
late 16th and early 17th centuries, when family feuds began between the
Drugets. It is known that in the 80s of the 16th century, the royal
troops, after knocking out Gaspar Druget from the castle, helped Gyordy
II Druget take possession of it."
In 1879, the Wagner Garden (in
honor of the Hungarian scientist and gardener Karl Wagner) was laid next
to the castle and a fountain with natural water pressure was built.
On the night of March 11, 2019, the roof of the three-story Donjon
tower collapsed due to a storm.
In 2019-2021, urgent restoration
work was carried out in Nevytskyi Castle.
An information poster claims that it was this mysterious area that inspired Jules Verne to write the fantastic horror novel Castle in the Carpathians (1889). The version needs verification, because according to the same poster text, the writer visited the castle in 1892. The latter is unlikely, because in 1886 the writer's nephew Gaston, who suffered from paranoia, shot the writer in the leg, after which he could not walk for the rest of his life.