In the western Slovakian region of Trenčín, near the village of Beckov in Nové Mesto nad Váhom District, lies a castle that is in ruins called Beckov Castle. It is a cultural and national landmark, and the restorations that took place between 2002 and the final part of the 20th century gave it its current form. The original name of the castle, in Latin, was Blundix. The term was taken from the Slavic word Bludište, which reflected the challenging topography of the region. Subsequently, the name of the castle was changed to reflect that of the nearby village of Beckov. A klippe of the Hronic nappe that is effectively revealed by the Váh River is the Beckov Cliff. The fortress, which is perched on a rock beside a river, served as strategic outlook of Great Moravia. There was most likely a stone fortress constructed in the middle of the thirteenth century to guard the frontiers of the Kingdom of Hungary. During the turn of the thirteenth and fourteenth century, Matthew III Csák acquired ownership of the fortress, which he reinforced. Castellans took over management of the castle after his death in 1321 A.D. Miklós Bánffy received the fortress from Louis I of Hungary in 1379 as gratitude for his participation in conflicts in the Balkans and Italy. Sigismund, King of Hungary, gave the castle to Stibor of Stiboricz of the Clan of Ostoja, a Baron with Polish ancestry, in 1388. Stibor owned 31 castles, but he picked Beckov as his residence and took extra care of it. He had the castle Gothically rebuilt to serve as the residence of his family. To make Beckov a unique place, artists from Veneto, Poland, Germany, and Bohemia worked on it. Stibor also constructed a church that featured magnificent sculptural ornamentation and paintings, including a sculpture of Black Madona that was at the time regarded as one of the most beautiful sculptures of Europe. A family coat of arms carved out of stone was located at the entryway of the chapel. Stibor Stiboric of Beckov received the castle as an inheritance upon the passing of his faher in 1414. Stibor Stiboric eventually left the estate to his daughter Katarína because he did not have a son. The royal council, however, ruled that she could only be given the traditional financial distribution of one-fourth of her the estate od her father. One day before Sigismund passed away in 1437 A.D., he gave Pál Bánffy the castle, perhaps with the understanding that he would wed Katarína, which he did. After the Ottoman Empire defeated the Kingdom of Hungary in the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Bánffy family rebuilt the castle into a Renaissance fortress and aristocratic residence. In 1599, a Tatar siege was effectively repelled by the stronghold. The castle was owned by the Bánffy family until Kristóf Bánffy, the only surviving member, passed away in 1646. After the passing of Kristóf Bánffy, Beckov Castle was progressively converted into a prison and barracks. The interior and roofs of the castle were destroyed by fire in 1729, leaving it in ruins. In 1970, the castle was designated as a national cultural landmark. It underwent renovated in the last decade of the twentieth century, giving it its current appearance
[Information Credit : Beckov_Castle, Wikipedia] [Wikipedia-Link : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beckov_Castle ]
[Image : Beckov, Trenčiansky kraj, Slovakia ; Credit: Daniel Pexels ; (Please Relate to Source Image-URL for More Image Usage Property and License)
Image-Source-Link : https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-castle-1130256/ ] #Architecture
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Monuments and Architecture
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