Spiš Castle

Spiš Castle covers almost the whole top of a travertine hill above the town of Spišské Podhradie and the village of Žehra. With about 4 hectares inside its walls, it is one of the largest castle sites in Central Europe. Seen from the road, the long white spread of ruined walls along the ridge looks more like a fortified town than a castle. It was first recorded in 1120 as a border fort on the northern edge of the Kingdom of Hungary. For centuries it was the seat of the county of Spiš, the political and economic centre of a rich region settled by Slovaks, Hungarians and German colonists. Together with the church at Žehra and the ecclesiastical town of Spišská Kapitula it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1993. The listing was later extended to include nearby Levoča.

The castle grew outward in rings. A Romanesque stone core with a two-storey palace and a basilica was built by the thirteenth century. A second outer ward in the fourteenth century doubled its area, and in the fifteenth century the walls were raised and a third ward added. The Hungarian kings owned it until the late fifteenth century. The Zápolya family then turned the upper castle into a comfortable residence and added a late Gothic chapel around 1470. The Thurzó family held it after them, and from 1638 the Csáky family. The Csákys moved out in the early eighteenth century to more comfortable country houses nearby. In 1780 a fire gutted the castle, and its cause is still debated: lightning, an accident, or a deliberate burning to avoid the tax on roofed buildings. After that the castle was left to decay.

Parts of the complex were stabilised and rebuilt in the second half of the twentieth century, after long archaeological research. The Spiš Museum, part of the Slovak National Museum, runs displays in the restored sections, including instruments of torture once used in the castle. The masonry is in poor condition, however. The museum warns of falling stones at the foot of the rock and asks visitors to keep to the marked paths.

Getting there

The castle is 16 km from Spišská Nová Ves and stands directly above Spišské Podhradie. It is reached easily from the main Poprad–Prešov road. The nearest airport is Poprad-Tatry (TAT), about 39 km away. Free visitor parking is below the castle on the Žehra side, not in Spišské Podhradie, and a footpath leads up from there.