Slanec Castle is situated on the hilltop above the village. The exact date of construction is unknown but it was probably built after the Mongol invasion. It is thought to be originated in the Árpád era. The oldest authentic mention can be found in a charter of the chapter of Eger from 1303, when the sons and descendants of Szalánczi I Péter (Petri de Zalanch) shared the castle and other possessions.
Next it is mentioned in the 1330s, when ten successors of the Szalánczy family traded Slanec Castle and the estate belonging to it with a Drugethfamily ancestor with the permission of King Charles Robert. The Gereni branch of the Drugeth family owned Slanec Castle until its extinction.From the Gereni branch of the Drugeth family, Miklós III, the supremus comes of Ung County and ban of Szörény married one of his daughters toLászló Telegdy. Thereafter Slanec Castle became Telegdy’s possession through marriage. László Telegdy’s daughter, Anna married László Losonczy, banof Slavonia, and so the Losonczy family soon took possession of the Slanec Castle from the Telegdy family.
In the first half of the 15th century, Hussites settled in Upper Hungary and occupied the castle. The troops of János Hunyadi chased themaway in 1448. In the 1490s the Losonczy family rebuilt the castle. After the extinction of the Losonczy family, Rudolf II donated the castle to BaronZsigmond Forgách de Ghymes in 1601.
István Bocskai occupied it in 1605, but after the Treaty of Vienna and Bocskai’s death it returned to Zsigmond Forgách. It was inherited by his son, Ádám, who was appointed chief commander of Košice in 1643. A year later, on 4th March, 1644, he gave up Košice without fight to George I Rákóczi, who took part in the Thirty Years’ War as an ally of Sweden and France. However, he escaped to Ferdinand III in Vienna, whom he informed about the composition of Rákóczi’s army and plans and took part in the initial fight against him. Nevertheless, the Transylvanian troops defeated him at the battle at Slanec and then burned the castle down in 1644. In the following decades, the castle changed hands several times. Occasionally it was held by anti-Habsburg rebels or by the emperor’s troops, and in the meantime it suffered significant damage.
Imre Thököly occupied the castle in 1678, and later signed a ceasefire with Leopold I. As a consequence the imperial troops invaded. General Count JakabLestie, the president of the war cabinet and commander in Upper Hungary destroyed the castle in 1679. Since then it has been lying in ruins. Today the owner and operator of Szalánc Castle is the municipality of Slanec.
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