Ľupča Castle

The Ľupča castle towers above the village Slovenská Ľupča. It's the highest located castle building in the Hron area (Pohronie). The castle is built on the north side of a relatively narrow fold of the Hron which is closed by the slopes of the Slovak Ore Mountains (Slovenské Rudohorie) from the south and by the slopes of the Low Tatras from the north. The oldest part of the castle is built on the isolated rock on the last hill of the Low Tatras jag with an altitude of 375m above sea level.

History

13th century

After the plundering invasion of the Tatars in 1241 only the stone architecture fortresses withstood the invaders. Therefore Béla IV of Hungary decided to build defensive structures and castles in the middle of the 13th century. The Ľupča castle was one of them. According to preserved written reports the castle was built on an important medieval road called Via Magna and served as a checkpoint on the road from Banská Bystrica to Brezno. In 1255 the castle was mentioned in conjunction with the letters patent for the town Banská Bystrica, chartered by Béla IV in the Ľupča castle. The castle and the extramural monastery were important centres in that time. This was demonstrated by the dispute cause between Béla IV and his son Stephen V of Hungary. The cause was settled in the castle on 3 August 1263 with attendance of highly placed city dignitaries and clergy, to whom belonged also the Ľupča monastery principal, guardian Thomas.

The 13th century was characterised by patronage of the monarchy to the castle. This was confirmed by frequent visits of monarchs associated with game hunting in the surrounding forests. The Ľupča caste became a temporary residence of the Hungarian kings, including Béla IV in 1258, 1263, 1265 and from 1267 till 1269. After his death his successor Stephen V visited the castle only twice, as it is reported in documents, in August 1270 and one year later when he confirmed the privilege to comes Ondrej (vogt of Banská Bystrica) for possession of part of the land. The following surrounding villeinage villages belonged to the castle in that period: