|
KAPUŠANY CASTLE
One day back in summer of 1997 we decided
with my friend Jaroslav Biros (alias Bohumile Onasisse) to go to the
ruins of Kapušany Castle. He felt that there is a road from village
north of the castle called Fulianka. We took every road leading from the
village only to come to a dead end each time. We asked numerous passers
by for directions to the castle. Finally one gentleman has given us
directions, which we followed only to run to another dead end above
village Kapušany. So I asked an owner of a house at the dead end for
permission to park, partially blocking her entrance. She was very kind
and gave us directions for the climb.
Of course we missed the green mark for the
trail and continued the wrong way. We run into a group of young people
having a beer and making fire for frying bacon on the sticks. They told
us where to turn, which we did. This trail is pure murder. Steep, steep,
steep, and dangerous. It offers some beautiful views of the surrounding
valleys and hillsides, just spectacular. I started to feel like mountain
climber. At first you don’t see the castle ruin at all, about half way
through the top, the ruin appears, and as you climb to higher elevation
suddenly the Kapušany castle is in front of you. The castle is not very
big. However its remaining walls are about six to seven feet thick.
There is a lot of debris covering the bottom floors; still I would say
that it probably did have about seven floors in the old days. Many of
the original sand stone windows and doorframes are still intact. As we
were browsing through the ruins we could hear to our big surprise noise
of a car motor. Soon the driver and his family appeared, so we got the
directions from them and decided, instead the climbing down, to take the
gentle road through the forest to find the entrance to this mysterious
road, that we couldn’t find. It wasn't hard at all, as it is with
everything, when you know.
Kapušany Castle is
situated on top of a steep hill, built on
the site of an old Slavic settlement in 13th century. It was suppose to
defend the Royal road going from Prešov
to the north. It is right at the intersection of two roads. One leading
east to Hanušovce nad Topľou and the other north to Bardejov. The first
owner of the castle was family Moglód.
After that it became property of the Royal chamber and Henrich Tarczany
became its commander, follower of Matúš Čák
In 1312 during battles
between Matúš Čák Trenčiancsky and Carl Róbert the castle was
destroyed and it remained as a ruin for 100 years. Around 1410 the
castle was given to Andrej Kappy who built a new object with
fortified walls. In 1468 the army of Mathias Corvinus was trying to
conquer the castle but they didn’t succeeded. The family owned the
castle until the 18th century when it was pulled down.
The castle was
again rebuilt and fortified against Turks in second half of the 16th
century so it would accomodate the demands of new army techniques.
Army of Imrich Thököly seized the
castle in 1658, but in the same year they lost it to the emperors
army. At the beginning of 18th century it was seized by Telekessy,
commander of František Rákóczi II army, who burned the castle in
1709. In 1712 they repaired the damage but in 1715 on the basis of
the decision of the parliament it was destroyed.
GO TO SLOVAKIA'S CASTLES
Published in the Slovak
Heritage Live newsletter
Volume 13, No.3, Fall 2005
Copyright © Vladimir Linder 2005
3804 Yale Street, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5C 1P6
The above article and photographs may not be copied, reproduced,
republished, or redistributed by any means including electronic, without
the express written permission of
Vladimir Linder.
All rights reserved.
|
