Cachtice castle

Čachtice Castle is a castle ruin in Slovakia in the district of Nové Mesto nad Váhom near the village of the same name Čachtice in the Little Carpathians. It is located on a limestone hill at an altitude of 375 meters. and thus forms an unmissable dominant. The castle was built in the 13th century as a guard castle, which was to protect the western border of Hungary. Soon after, it was conquered and severely damaged by the Czech King Přemysl Otakar II. In the 17th century, it began to lose its significance as a protective border castle and began to decline and decline. In 1981, Oldřich Lipský's comedy The Secret of the Castle in the Carpathians was shot here. A memorial plaque is placed here in memory.

 

The castle became famous mainly thanks to Alžběta Báthoryová, a noble lady from Čachtice in Hungary, who was famous for bathing in the blood of girls at her castle in order to preserve her beauty for as long as possible. In 1611 she was sentenced to life imprisonment in the castle tower. She died 4 years later (August 21, 1614) at the age of 54.

 

One of the three Čachtice castles (Nádašdyovský kaštel - the main seat of Alžběta Báthoryová) was actually located directly in the village and belonged to Čachtice Castle, but only the torso of the wall and bastion has been preserved. Legend has it that the castle corridors led from the cellars to the castle and vice versa. However, the corridors were allegedly buried, so no one will know if they were real or only rumors. The real (more modest) remains of the Čachtice underground under the ruins of the monastery and the former wine cellar in the village are the subject of research and part of them is open to the public.