Slovakia · 13th century
Modrý Kameň (Slovak: Hrad Modrý Kameň, Hungarian: Kékkö) is a hilltop castle from the second half of the 13th century above Veľký Krtíš in the Banská Bystrica Region.
The oldest documentary mention of the castle dates from the years 1278 and 1290. In a written mention from the year 1285 Peter Forró is named as the owner. In 1575 the castle was occupied by the Turks, who then fortified it further, but razed it when they withdrew. At the beginning of the 17th century the Balassa family began to restore the castle and erected a Baroque mansion on it.
Today the castle houses a museum of the history and the present of Slovak puppet theatre and of toys in Slovakia in the 20th century.
Machine-translated from “Burg Blauenstein (Slowakei)” on the German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Modrý Kameň ranks #4,729 of 9,035 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #65 of the 135 mapped in Slovakia. Founded c. 1275, it is older than 65% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 1090 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. 4 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Banská Bystrica, 56 km away. See how Slovakia compares in the castle statistics.
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