I set aside the whole weekend to visit one of the most beautiful and photogenic castles in the world - Bojnice. This is the place where you need to take your time to look at everything and spend at least three to four hours wandering around the area. Believe me, it's worth it!
Bojnice Castle is located in the Slovak town of Bojnice, near the city of Prjevidza. To get to Prievidza, you need to take a bus from Žilina or Trenčín, and then take a city bus to Bojnice. At least that's what I read on Google, we drove there in our car, but I decided to add information about public transport, maybe it will be useful to someone.
As soon as we got closer, I jumped out of the car and spent a lot of time photographing the castle from afar. At the same time, I practically did not go anywhere until I enjoyed this building under the sun's rays, which appeared in front of me as if from fairy tales or Disney cartoons.
The first mention of the castle dates back to 1113 in a document of Zobor Abbey. Initially, it was wooden, but gradually some elements were replaced by stone ones, and the outer walls were adapted to the surrounding mountainous terrain. Such modernization, I believe, benefits any castle, because it gives more opportunities for the defence of the structure, and also reduces the threat that the wooden base will simply burn.
The first owner was Matias Čak, the de facto ruler of the entire western and central Slovakia. The castle was given to him in 1302 by the Hungarian king Václav III. In the 15th century, the castle was in the possession of King Matthias "Corwin" Hunyadi, who, in turn, transferred the castle in 1489 for a short time to his illegitimate son Jánosz Corwin.
Matias willingly visited Boinice and issued royal decrees there. And after his death, the castle passed from one rich family to another. At the same time, everyone tried to slightly rework its primary appearance, and therefore the castle was systematically subjected to various reconstructions and received new buildings.
Thus, the rich Turzy family from the northern part of the Hungarian Kingdom purchased the castle in 1528 and carried out numerous reconstructions. The original fortress was transformed into a Renaissance castle. Since 1646, the castle has been in the possession of the Palfi family, who also initiated the transformation of the castle.
The most interesting story for me was the capital reconstruction of the castle by Jan Palfi, which lasted from 1888 to 1909. He personally acted in this work as an architect and graphic designer. Also, Jan was one of the biggest collectors of antique tapestries, paintings and sculptures of his time.
This large-scale reconstruction took place under the influence of Jan's personal life. He fell in love with a Frenchwoman, the daughter of an aristocrat. Palfius proposed to her, and she agreed to become his wife, but she was not going to move to the castle, because it was not like her native home. As a result, the castle was rebuilt in the French style, but the reconstruction lasted 21 years. During this time, the girl was already married, and Jan Palfius died unmarried.
After the death of Palfius, his heirs sold the castle together with surrounding land in 1939 to Jan Antonin Bata, the head of the Bata shoe concern. However, after the Second World War in 1945, the castle became the property of the Czechoslovak state, it was nationalized and various state institutions were located in it.
On May 9, 1950, a fire broke out in the castle, which caused great damage. The government allocated funds for the restoration of the Bojnice Castle. After the restoration, the branch of the Slovak National Museum, specializing in the documentation and presentation of the postmodern architectural style, was located in the castle.
Bojnice Castle is a very popular place where couples in love, as well as newlyweds, like to hold romantic photo sessions. I also heard that it is also loved in the cinema, to shoot films there or to use it as an additional location for filming. So, for example, in "Cave of the Golden Rose", the cave of the Black Queen is our today's "hero".