Levice Castle Ruins

Levice, Slovakia

The castle in Levice was built in the 13th century, when the near Tekovsky castle’s importance had declined due the devastation of Tartars. It was built on andesite rock, the remnants of Neogenic volcanic activity, which extended to the Štiavnica hills. The west side of the castle was bounded by the marshy meadow of the river Hron, with its several river branches. The castle itself had been a fortress for protection of the mining towns. Under the protection of the castle in the 14th century a settlement known as 'Big' or 'Old Levice' had been established, which is the real predecessor of today’s Levice town.

The 150 year long Turkish occupation, which started in the 16th century, weakened the town economically and made it more dependent on the castle’s estate. At this time the Levice castle, then already a royal castle, was listed among the 15 most important defence forts. In the middle of the 17th century the Turkish incursions grew stronger. Seeing the enemy’s huge numerical advantage, the captain gave up Levice without resistance. The Turks' rule in Levice lasted for only 224 days, when in 1664 by an unexpected action they were expelled out of the town. After the end of the Turkish wars Levice lost its important role as a frontier-castle and in 1699 in accordance with official orders it was abolished as a fort.

Frequent fires meant great disasters for Levice. In 1696 fire destroyed almost the whole town. In 1715 there were 195 taxpayers and 43 craftsmen in the town. In the time of Rákoczy’s Revolt in the 18th century the castle was in a very bad condition. In order to prevent from being used for military purposes the rebels decided to destroy it before leaving. The castle was never re-established and thus it lost its military importance.

References:

Comments

Your name



Details

Founded: 13th century
Category: Miscellaneous historic sites in Slovakia

Rating

4.4/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Alfonz Fox (5 months ago)
Typical Slovak (I’m Slovak) attraction. Closed during weekend. Very disappointed because it is in center of town. I would not complain if it is in remote mountains. There were other tourists coming while we were there all disappointed. Levice are not nice, smoking in cafes, lot of strange people. I felt unsafe.
Tomas Vitasek (10 months ago)
nice museum. amazing place.
Matúš (12 months ago)
Bjútiful
Kevin Richter (2 years ago)
It's a nice castle, although we couldn't go inside as it is closed due to the damage. Definitely nice area for a walk if you're spending day in Levice
Eli Klaver (2 years ago)
Was closed on saturday :(
Powered by Google

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Historic Site of the week

Goryokaku Fortress

Goryōkaku (五稜郭) (literally, 'five-point fort') is a star fort in the Japanese city of Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido. The fortress was completed in 1866. It was the main fortress of the short-lived Republic of Ezo.

Goryōkaku was designed in 1855 by Takeda Ayasaburō and Jules Brunet. Their plans was based on the work of the French architect Vauban. The fortress was completed in 1866, two years before the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate. It is shaped like a five-pointed star. This allowed for greater numbers of gun emplacements on its walls than a traditional Japanese fortress, and reduced the number of blind spots where a cannon could not fire.

The fort was built by the Tokugawa shogunate to protect the Tsugaru Strait against a possible invasion by the Meiji government.

Goryōkaku is famous as the site of the last battle of the Boshin War.