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Castle Lietava
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1 Odpoveď
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The Lietava Castle
The rocky crest in the east ledge of the Sulov highlands was chosen as a building site probably by someone from the Balas lineage in the last quarter of the 13th century. On the highest part of the rock they built a four-storey tower with a square section plan. A palisade streached northeastwards from the tower. The original disposition was completed by a smaller palace. In the beginning of the 14th century the castle was taken over by Matus Cak but after his death in 1321 it was subjugated by the army of the king Charles Robert and returned to the Balas lineage. In the year 1360, the Bebeks got the castle and they expanded it northeastwards. Pavol Kinizi was the next known owner of the Lietava Castle in the year 1474. He swiftly proceeded with a massive rebuilding of the castle. Southwestwards from the main tower he built a palace that was completed by the construction of a large residential tower. An armorial bearing of Kinizi is preserved on the corner of that tower. A new entrance to the castle mounthed into the square gate-way tower that is lined up with a northwest cirquit palisade. The north courtyard was reinforced by a cylindrical bastion. Here the palisade rectangulary turned eastwards and was completed by a large four-storey horseshoe tower. In the first half of the 16th century Mikulas Kostka settled in Lietava castle. He scattered the king‘s army that was supposed to revoke the castle from him and later on he had a king‘s representative beaten by a stick in front of the castle‘s gate so much, that poor Jan Lukaci succumbed to these woonds.
Mikulas Kostka inscribed into the castle‘s history also because of his building activity. He built a new gate by breaking through a north circuit palisade and also built a large rondel in the east side of the castle. The next owner, Frantisek Thurzo, (from 1558) had the castle rebuilt in a renaissance style. The fragments of this redesign garnish the castle up to this day, e.g. the cylindrical attics or the residues of the sgraffito decoration. During his reign the last palisade circuit was erected. It opened by a new tower gate, followed by a palisade drawn towards north. Another gate was built next to the cylindrical tower – it was called Orlová. Frantisek‘s syn, palatine Juraj Thurzo, continued with the uplifting of the estate and the castle too, but after his death, little by little, the destruction of the castle beginned. From the half of the 18th century the castle is abandonded. In the 250 years of a dilapidation the castle entered the emergency state. In the year 2003, it was taken into a tenancy in this state by the „Association for recovery of Lietava castle“. The association – with a help of patrons, grant organisations and European funds – strives to reduce the destruction of this ruin and its sensitive conservation and static securing.Aleš Hoferek
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