POVAŽSKÝ CASTLE

The castle was built in the second half of the 13th  century. It is first reported as Bystrický castle in 1300. It was for a long time King’s property. It’s owners include Ondrej III, Karl Robert I from Anjou, Ludovít I the Great, his wife Elizabeth Kotromanický, Szigmund Lux­embourg and his wife Barbora and at the end by the king Mathias Corvinus who donated the castle to the Podmanický family in 1458 who reconstructed parts of the castle follow­ing a major fire in 1543. The oldest part the tower and resi­dential palace now nearly to­tally de­stroyed stood at the highest point of the castle’s rock. 

The last of the Podmanický family owners were brothers John and Raph­ael who were famous as robbing knights. After their deaths the castle be­longed to King Ferdinand I, who gave it to Hungarian no­bleman Gaspar Seredy. Last owners were family Bellassy who after the second major fire in 1630 built under the castle rock new renaissance manor house by which the hard accessi­ble castle lost it’s importance. 

After be­ing taken by Thokoly soldiers Emperor Leopold I ordered the demolition of the cas­tle in 1698. Slavs settlements and grave mounds from 8 -10th century were found in Považská Bystrica city and near-by area.  

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Published in the Slovak Heritage Live newsletter Volume 8, No.4, Winter 2000
Copyright © Vladimir Linder 2000 
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