Drégely Castle

Drégely Castle (Hungarian: Drégely vára) is a 13th-century hilltop castle in Nógrád County, Hungary. It is in ruins, but being restored.

The ruins of Drégely Castle sit on a 440-metre-high (1,440 ft) peak of the Börzsöny mountains in Hungary. The area is in the administrative territory of Drégelypalánk in Nógrád County. But it is easier to reach the castle from Nagyoroszi on surfaced road. The castle district is in the area of the Danube-Ipoly National Park.

The small castle was probably built by the Bozók branch of the Hunt-Poznan family in the second half of the 13th century, during the Árpád dynasty, by order of Béla IV. It was first mentioned as Latin: Castrum Dragul in a charter of 1285 as the possession of Demeter of the Hunt-Poznan family. The proprietors had to surrender to Máté Csák III in 1311. After the death of this oligarch in 1321 the castle was overcome by the army of Charles I of Hungary. At that time Drégely Castle served as the county dungeon and held the archives of Hont County.

In 1390 King Sigismund exchanged the castle with the Tary family for lands in Somogy county. Later the King reacquired Drégely because of the despotic measures of the Tary family and their castellan.

In 1438 Drégely was gained by the Archbishop of Esztergom. The high priest rebuilt the castle to be his hunting seat.

Drégely came under military control again after the fall of Buda in 1541. It became part of the border castle system designed to repel invaders of the Ottoman Empire. Archbishop Pál Várday spent much money to strengthen the castle. In 1543 Esztergom, the centre of the archdiocese, fell. Next year the castles of Vác and Nógrád fell too. Drégely became part of the first line of defence for the kingdom. In 1544 Várday appointed György Szondy to be castellan of the castle and the governor of the Drégely estate. Szondy tried to fortify the small fortress against Turkish invaders. Várday died in 1549, and the local guards were no longer paid regularly. In the same year lightning struck the castle, but it hardly damaged the walls or the gunpowder depot.

In 1552 Hadim Ali Pasha of Buda laid siege to the castle at Veszprém and captured it on 2 June. The Turkish army turned its attention to the castles of Hont and Nógrád counties. The army of Ali Pasha – about 10,000 to 12,000 strong – got below Drégely Castle on the morning of 6 July.

Text adapted from “Drégely Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Drégely Castle ranks #4,654 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #27 of the 135 mapped in Hungary. Founded 1285, it is older than 67% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 860 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,673 times in the last 60 days, more than 62% of the atlas. 5 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Budapest, 58 km away. See how Hungary compares in the castle statistics.

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