Smolenice Castle

History

Smolenice Castle was built in the 15th century, but it was destroyed during Rákóczi's War of Independence and Napoleanic wars. In 1777, Count János Pálffy from Pezinok inherited Smolenice but did not reside in the castle due to its poor condition and lack of money for rebuilding it. The castle was only rebuilt in the 20th century, by order of Count József Pálffy. The architect Jozef Hubert designed the new castle by using Kreuzenstein castle near Vienna as a model, and the works were controlled by the architect Pavol Reiter from Bavaria. During its construction there were masters from Italy, Germany, Austria and Hungary, and 60 workmen from Smolenice and nearby villages. The main building has two wings and a tower, and is made of ferroconcrete. The castle was damaged in the spring of 1945 during World War II, and in that same year the state became the owner of it. Some reconstructions have been made after 1950, and since June 26, 1953 the castle is property of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. The castle serves now as a conference centre, and it is only opened to the public in the months of July and August.

Castellan Csongor

Thanks to his loyalty, Csongor became a castellan of the original Smolenice Castle. He was a very tough man, snobbish and merciless. Csongor often assigned his servants with such tasks, which they could not fulfil, and then he punished them in a cruel way. Once he ordered one servant to deliver a letter to Pressburg (now Bratislava) in three hours, what was simply impossible to do. The servant had to obey the castellan’s order and so he set off for the journey. He took a shortcut through a forest, where he met a carriage driven by three horses. He said the carriage driver about his tough task. The driver did not hesitate and offered him help. The servant sat in the carriage and suddenly something unexpected happened. The horses flew to the skies and the servant managed to accomplish his task in time. Csongor could not understand how the servant managed to deliver the letter in time and so he asked the servant. He explained everything and Castellan got scared. He understood that the carriage driver was a ghost of another servant tormented to death by the Castellan some time ago. Castellan was so afraid of ghost’s revenge that he got a heart attack. It is rumoured that his scared spirit still wanders through Smolenice Castle.