Strečno Castle

The Strečno Castle (Slovak: Strečniansky hrad)(also called Strechun, Strechyn, Streczen, Streczan alebo Strežín) is a reconstructed ruin of a medieval castle of an irregular plan located in northern Slovakia, 12 km east of Žilina. The castle stands on a 103-metre-high (338 ft) calcite cliff above the international road E50 and village Strečno. Along with the Old castle (Slovak: Starhrad) constitutes a significant landscape landmark of the Upper Váh region. Nowadays, after reconstruction, there are expositions of the Vah region regional museum (Slovak: Považské múzeum v Žiline). The first recorded mention of the stone castle is from 1316. Today the castle belongs to the national cultural heritage of the Slovak republic.

A strategic location of the cliff massif rising 103 meters high above the river Váh and above a strategic road located in a narrow strait of the Strečno col was an important prerequisite for building a fortified guardian building. The hill was inhabited already in the late Iron Age. During the earlier Roman period there was a settlement of the Púchov culture.

The first recorded mention of the stone castle is from 1316. Later, in charter of Trenčín district administrator from 1358 is an explicit mention about castle and about a toll station collecting a toll for passage over the river Váh under the castle. In this period, the castle was owned by Matthew III Csák. The oldest part of the castle called small castle, object of the polygonal shaped floor plan of the area of 400 m2 approximately, that consisted of a prism watch tower, a water cistern, a courtyard and a small residential building located in the north eastern corner of the fortification. The access path led from the south through the bridge over a ditch through the main gate. At the end of the first half of the 14th century, the forecastle was completed, providing better control of the main entrance. Later, at the beginning of the 15th century, the northern palace, the chapel and 88 meters deep well on the main courtyard were built during the Barbara of Cilli´s ownership. The new entrance was located in new-built the recruit tower with on the south. Also the northern tower was built in this period. Better defensive capabilities of the castle were secured by the second fortification circuit that defined the area of the southern court and a narrow area of zwinger with three horse-shoe shaped bastions. 4th oval bastion was built in the area of main entrance. After these conversions, the castle became one of the best fortified castles of the middle Váh region. After a period of expansion of the castle, a decline occurs in the early 16th century as a result of frequent changes of the owners. This condition changed after another change - Nicolaus and Francis Dersffy started a series of renaissance conversions.

...
Wikipedia