The 371st fortification on my site is Hricsó Castle. Ricsóváralja (Hričovské Podhradie) is a village in the Zsolna (Žilina) district of Zsolna (Žilina) county, in Slovakia, it is famous for its castle called Hricsó (Hričov) which was built in the Kingdom of Hungary by Master Tolus, the son of Farkas between 1254 and 1265.
Location on the map: https://shorturl.at/2UySk
It is a small hill fort. From the 1280s it belonged to the Balassa family, then to the Podmaniczky family, and after 1526 it was also a robber knight’s castle and a mint for counterfeit money. Later it belonged to the Thurzós, then to the Erdődys, who abandoned it in the 1670s and since then it has been in ruins.
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I would like to share with you its legend, told by Felvidéki Mesemondó, the rest of the history can be read on my page below:
“A forgotten castle on the Vág River, a quarter of an hour from Zsolna. According to the history books, the castle was built during the reign of Béla IV, but the construction was not considered exciting by the older generation, so the history of the castle was turned into a mysterious legend by imagination and rumors.
In the 16th century, the feared knight Lahar made his home here with his beautiful wife and four sons. As far as the eye could see, everything belonged to Lahar. And where the eye couldn’t see, it was owned by the Thurzós.
Then one day, one of Lahar’s sons died… And then the other. Then the third. Finally, he lost all four. The robber knight’s hard heart was broken to pieces… He became a shadow of his former self and soon went after his sons. His beautiful widow was left alone in the castle. As the years passed, her grief never faded. Though there were plenty of new suitors, they all bounced off the castle walls.
The lord of the neighboring dominion, the bishop of Nyitra, Thurzó Ferencz, also lost his wife at that time. He did not mourn for long and went to Lahar’s widow to make the best of a bad situation… It was not love that drove him, he only wanted Lahar’s considerable property.
He had made a fool of the aging widow. He played with her… The woman liked the courtship, she liked the neighboring landowner, but she still refused Thurzó’s offer of marriage. “I am too old to be your wife, but I see my sons in you, Ferencz!” and she adopted her suitor as her son.
Thurzó was quite excited. The woman was old, there was nothing to worry about, just wait until she died and everything would be his. Everything!
A year passed, and then another… Thurzó’s pockets began to fill with the fact that the woman was not going to die willingly. One night he sent his henchmen to her room and locked her in the castle’s dark cellar dungeon.
In this villainous way, the former Lahar domain became the property of Thurzó. Much water flowed down the Vág, and the desperate widow cursed the thief day and night in her grief. The curse took effect.
In the castle, ghosts haunted the servants, ghouls frightened the guards, and the new lord of the castle awoke every night drenched in sweat to the sound of screams from the cellar.
One day a guest pounded on the castle gate. A monk was looking for the bishop. With a thunderous voice, he read his sins on his head and called on Thurzó to repent. Instead of repenting, the evil lord threw the monk out.
The priest remained outside the castle, recounting Thurzó’s sins day after day. The lord was helpless and locked the monk in one of the castle’s towers to starve to death.
The lock on the monk’s cell had barely clicked when a rock rose from the ground in front of the castle. Its menacing shape resembled that of the monk. Thurzó immediately gave the order to smash the rock to pieces. But it was broken in vain, and the next morning it was back at the gate, unharmed.
That was enough for the evil lord of the castle. He ran from the keep. As soon as he stepped out of the gate, the walls collapsed like a house of cards.
Not much remains of the castle of Hricsó. The scream no longer breaks the silence, and the ghosts have long since gone. Only its gate has been faithfully guarded for centuries by the stone monk… If you’re in Zsolna (Žilina) and feel like it, take a detour and visit it.”
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️️In my article, you can read more about the history of Hricsó, and find lots of stunning pictures:
https://www.hungarianottomanwars.com/hricso-ricsovaralja/
