Castle Strečno

Strečno (also called Strechun, Strechyn, Streczen, Streczan or Strežín) is a castle seven kilometers east of the Slovak town of Žilina towards Vrútky and Martin on a high rocky outcrop above the river Váh on the edge of the Strečenský pass.

 

The castle was founded probably at the turn of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to guard the road and toll collection in the Váh valley. It was later forcibly acquired by Matúš Čák Trenčanský. At the beginning of the fifteenth century it fell into royal hands and became the property of the Hungarian queens Barbora Celjská and later Alžběta.

 

In 1444 it became the property of the Pongrác family from Liptovský Mikuláš, to which it belonged until 1469 and then often changed its owners - it belonged to Jan Korvín, Jan Zápolský, Mikuláš and Petrov Kostkov, etc. In the 17th century it belonged to František Vesselényi and Löwenburg family.

 

The castle in the 17th century provided refuge for the rebels during the Tököly uprising. After the suppression of this uprising, the castle was demolished during the reign of Leopold I and has since fallen into disrepair. The first conservation work on the castle was carried out at the beginning of the 20th century, a complete reconstruction was carried out in the 1990s, and the castle was then opened to the public and housed a branch of the Považský Museum.

 

The castle has an irregular floor plan, which was created by construction activities concentrated over the centuries around the castle core. The oldest part of the castle was a prismatic residential tower accessible by a bridge over a moat from the south side. On the north side was a square courtyard with castle palaces and a chapel built in the 15th century. Adjacent to these buildings was the northern fort with a large, sloping tower directly above the river on a ridge of rock.

 

The inner part of the castle was extended in the 15th century by a new two-storey castle palace extended to the east to the edge of the rocks above Váh. The Kotkovci built a new renaissance fort in front of the castle, the fortifications of which met the period requirements of military technology. In the 17th century, the fortifications of the castle were supplemented by three round bastions, which, however, have not been preserved and are known only from period depictions. The castle was at that time the strongest castle in the whole Považie.