Castle and Manor house Liptovský Hrádok (Grandcastle)

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Castle and Manor house Liptovsky Hradok are open for public. We kindly invite you to our castle tours and there is as well audiovisual presentation of history and reconstruction prepared for you.

History

In the 14th century the Gown (head of the province) of Zvolen built the gotic castle of stone on high limestone rock, surrounded by a water ditch, which is well preserved and has the appearance of a lake. The first reference to the castle is from 1341 as ,,Wywar” in later documents it is referred to as ,,Novum Castrum”, Novy Hrad or Hradek. The castle was built by the Royal Estate to control the very important road called ,,Via Magna” In 1433 the castle was captured by the Hussit, but was later occupied by Jiskrovci, after which the castle changed owners many times. In the second half of the 16th century the brothers Valentine and Frantisek Balas rebuilt the castle. From documents that have been well preserved, it’s known that in 1579 they invested more then 3000 golden coins on renovations.
After they died in 1600 the castle and the manor house belonged to Mikulas Sandorfy and his young lady Magdalena Zai. She was a widow of the castle`s previous owner. Between 1601 and 1603 Mikulas Sandorfy restored the castle in a Renaissance style, and added to it a Renaissance manor house. The renaissance castle was built using stone from broken castle walls. The ground floor of the castle was used for stock and a housing area for the servants, whilst the first floor was used to accommodate the owners and their guests.
The castle had the biggest strategic importance in the timess of uprising of the Rebellions of the Estates at the turnoff the 17th to18th century. The Imperial General built strong defenses against the rebel Frantisek Rakozci. Later, at the beginning of 18th century the Imperial Leopold I. gifted the castle and the manor house to Prince Lichtenstein. In 1709 during the important battle of Svihrova between the rebel and imperials armies, the rebel forces destroyed the old castle. In 1731 King Larder bought the castle and the manor house from Emanuel Lichtenstein. Extensions to the manor house were stopped in 1803 by a big fire at the castle.
After this calamity the officers of the king decided to restore only the manor house. The castle was from that year in ruins. The fire wasn`t the only calamity to occur at the castle. In 1813 during an extremely rainy summer there was a catastrophic flood.
Between 1860-1874 part of the castle was used to house the district court and jail. In 1932 parts of the old castle were closed for safety reasons. After further repairs the castle housed the museum of Liptov. Between 1990-2002 the castle and manor house were unoccupied.