Smolenice Castle
The Smolenice Castle (also Smolenice Castle ; Slovak Smolenický zámok ) is a castle at the eastern foot of the Little Carpathians north of the municipality of Smolenice in Slovakia .
history
Originally Smolenice Castle was a castle from the 14th century, which had the task of protecting the border passes in the Carpathian Mountains. The castle was also on the Bohemian Way , a trade route that led from Prague to Saxony.
Smolenice Castle was built on the site of the castle in the 15th century. It was destroyed during the Rakoczy Uprising and the entire destruction took place during the Napoleonic Wars , when the main building and the tower burned down completely.
In 1777 Count Johann Pálffy von Bösing took the castle as a pledge. The Pálffys did not live in the castle because it was in poor condition. Only Josef Pálffy had the castle rebuilt. In 1877 the fortress walls and bastions were rebuilt, the old bastions were retained but raised and roofed over. The architect was Josef Hubert. Stood by Kreuzenstein Castle near Vienna as a model. The work was supervised by the architect Pavol Reiter from Bavaria. Master craftsmen from Italy, Germany, Austria and Hungary were employed during the reconstruction, as well as 60 workers from Smolenice and the surrounding villages. The main building has two wings and a tower and is made of reinforced concrete . However, the complete completion of the palace only happened after the expropriation in 1945 through the construction of the new entrance area in 1971–73.
The castle was damaged in the spring of 1945 during the Second World War . In 1945 the castle was nationalized and taken over by the Slovak National Council , which built its summer residence there. The castle was completely renovated and handed over to the Slovak Academy of Sciences on June 26, 1953 . It now serves as a conference center and is open to the public in July and August.
Web links
- Entry on Smolenice in the scientific database " EBIDAT " of the European Castle Institute
- Smolenice Castle
- Smolenice Congress Center
- Slovak Academy of Sciences
Coordinates: 48 ° 30 ′ 49 ″ N , 17 ° 25 ′ 56 ″ E