Breathtaking VIDEO: The 17th-century castle of Fülek reborn
Ready for a time travel? Here is a video showing the romantic castle of Fülek in the 17th century. Fülek is currently in Slovakia, but the town has a Hungarian majority, and the Romantic castle ruin is open for visitors.
Pazirik Stúdió shared a breathtaking video on YouTube showing the castle of Fülek in the 17th century. They said on their Facebook page that they have been planning to recreate the castle for years using their financial sources.
The idea to create spectacular, interactive educational content came during the procession of relevant historical sources. Here is the video:
On their website, you can check out the most important buildings and sections of the castle and its neighbourhood. Furthermore, you can read about their history there in English. Click HERE to check that out.
The first written source of the Fülek castle is from 1242, one year after the Mongol invasion that almost destroyed Hungary. We wrote about the invasion in detail HERE.
Hungary’s leadership learned during the invasion that the Mongols could not conquer stone-walled fortresses. Therefore, Béla IV (1235-1270), the King of Hungary, supported the nobles to erect such fortresses on their lands. Of course, they were much more expensive than the previously built palisades and wooden structures. However, their defenders had a chance against the Eastern invaders, who returned in the coming decades.
Later, such castles could serve as a refuge for the enemies of the kings or even become the place of rebel nobles. That is what happened e.g. in 1483, when Mathias I won it back from the Perényi family with siege.
The Ottomans conquered it in 1554. It remained in their hands, bringing much sorrow to the neighbouring villages and Hungarian mining towns until 1593. Then, Miklós Pálffy took it back with 7,000 soldiers.
The 17th century was the golden age of the castle. Townsfolk built a monumental Lutheran church and a Lutheran secondary school. In 1670, a French engineer, Johann le Dentu, made a real-life miniature of the castle and the town.
In 1682, the Ottoman forces conquered it again and blew up the castle. Since it was never rebuilt, it remained a Romantic ruin.
In the 1970s, authorities started to rebuild some parts of the castle. One of them was the Bebek Tower, while the other the clock tower and the cannon sites. Some parts of the castle have been open to visitors since 1993.
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