Location
United States
48° 13' 18.9732" N, 18° 36' 5.0472" E
See map: Google Maps
US
The Levický hrad Castle.
The oldest reliable written document mentioning the castle Leua is from 1318. The wetlands terrain of the river Hron valley made the access to the fortress from the exposed sides difficult for the conquerors. Over time, the Castle was owned by highly ranked people such as Matthew Csák of Trencsén, King Robert of Anjou, the robber knight Melicher Balassa and the Turkish Wars hero István Dobó (the builder of the Dobóvsky kaštieľ Manor house in the courtyard) as well as by families such as Kollonich, Csák and Esterházy. It was an important site of defence of the south-western routes leading to the wealth of the mining towns of central Slovakia. It served this purpose until 1709 when it was completely destroyed by the retreating armies of František II of Rákóczi.
The Dobóo's Manor house. This two-storey renaissance building was named after its owner—the Tekov district governor István Dobó, called “the hero of Jágr“, famous from the Turkish Wars. The manor house, the construction of which was started by István Dobó and finished by his son Francis in 1571, is the most extensive building on the castle grounds to this day. The castle grounds are one of the most conserved 16th century fortified compounds in Southern Slovakia. Under its front facade (where the unusually wide moat used to be) lies the castle park.
