The Plaveč castle ( or , ) is the ruins of a

hilltop castle A hilltop castle is a type of hill castle that was built on the summit of a hill or mountain. In the latter case it may be termed a mountaintop castle. The term is derived from the German, ''Gipfelburg'', which is one of a number of terms used ...

above the village of Plaveč in north-eastern

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

Name

The name is said to derive from the Slavic name of the

Cumans The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic people, Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cumania, Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Ru ...

(in today's Slovak ''Plavci''), who were invited by Hungarian kings in the 11th and 12th centuries to monitor the borders of the nascent

Hungarian state The Hungarian State (, archaically ''Magyar Álladalom'') was a short-lived unrecognised state that existed for 4 months in the last phase of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848–49. Constitutional tensions between the Hungarian parliament and F ...

History

The castle was first mentioned in writing in 1294 as ''Palocha'' and was built by a certain Ditrich (or his son Arnold) from

Spiš Spiš ( ; or ; ) is a region in north-eastern Slovakia, with a very small area in south-eastern Poland (more specifically encompassing 14 former Slovak villages). Spiš is an informal designation of the territory, but it is also the name of one ...

to secure a ford on the road to

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. The border castle became royal property and was given to the Drugeth family by

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

in 1317. After the Drugeth family died out, the

Bebek family The Bebek family (also Bubek) was an ancient Hungarian noble family. The history of this family is connected with the areas in present-day Slovakia, notably in Gemer region, where they had their dominion. History The first mention of this fa ...

received the castle from King

Sigismund of Luxembourg Sigismund of Luxembourg (15 February 1368 – 9 December 1437) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1433 until his death in 1437. He was elected King of Germany (King of the Romans) in 1410, and was also King of Bohemia from 1419, as well as prince-elec ...

in 1366. Around 1427, the Bebeks owned the entire territory of the castle. Between 1449 and 1458, the castle was ruled by the

Hussite file:Hussitenkriege.tif, upright=1.2, Battle between Hussites (left) and Crusades#Campaigns against heretics and schismatics, Catholic crusaders in the 15th century file:The Bohemian Realm during the Hussite Wars.png, upright=1.2, The Lands of the ...

Bohemian brothers and their leader Petr Aksamit. After the brothers were expelled by the Zápolya family, they kept the castle until 1505, when the widow of Stephan Zápolya gave it to the Horváth family, which was henceforth known as Horváth-Palocsay. This family had the castle rebuilt in the 16th century in the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

style, followed by another extensive reconstruction in the 17th century, the result of which was a residential castle that replaced the medieval fortress. As a result, it was spared from being razed in 1715. After the last conversion in 1830, the residential part was given the appearance of a

Classicist Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

castle. The entire complex fell victim to a fire in 1856 and the Palocsay family died out a year later. The abandoned castle slowly fell into disrepair until the walls of the former

palace A palace is a large residence, often serving as a royal residence or the home for a head of state or another high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome whi ...

collapsed in the 1990s, leaving only small parts of the wall of the residential area and a

bastion A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...

Current state

Since 2014, the castle has been renovated and partially rebuilt.

External links

{{commons category, Plaveč Castle (Stará Ľubovňa District), Plaveč Castle
Description of the castle (Slovak)

Description of the castle with ground plan and photographs (Slovak)

References

13th-century establishments Plavec