Sitno

Sitno is a former defensive castle raised at a height of about 840 m above sea level on the eastern slope of Mount Sitno in the Štiavnica Mountains in Slovakia. It lies in the territory of the commune of Ilija in the district of Banská Štiavnica (Banská Bystrica Region).

The castle probably arose as early as the second half of the 13th century as one of the system of royal strongholds raised after the Tatar invasions. In the first half of the 16th century it most probably belonged to the royal mining chamber. The first written mentions of it, however, date only from 1548, when royal troops captured it and took it from the robber knight Melchior Balassy (Slovak: Melicher Balaš), who ruled it. After Balassy's expulsion the castle was given into the possession of Ján Kružic, at that time the commander of the royal garrison in Krupina, who at the same time held the castle of Čabraď. In 1629 King Ferdinand II handed the "states" of Sitno and Čabraď over to Peter Kohary as a token of gratitude for his services in the wars with the Turks. Sitno was at that time the seat of a feudal "state" to which seven villages belonged. It then belonged to the Coburgs.

The castle guarded the approach from the south to Banská Štiavnica and the other royal mining towns. Rebuilt and considerably strengthened in the years 1548–1552, it became an important link in the defence against the Turkish threat. After the outbreak of Rákóczi's anti-Habsburg uprising in 1703 it was occupied by insurgent troops, who in 1711 destroyed it completely while abandoning it. Today it remains in a state of complete ruin.

The castle is easily accessible by several tourist trails from the surrounding localities. The Andrej Kmeť educational path also runs through it from Prenčov all the way to the summit of Sitno.

Machine-translated from “Zamek Sitno” on the Polish Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sitno ranks #5,404 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #80 of the 140 mapped in Slovakia. Founded c. 1300, it is older than 63% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 860 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. 11 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Banská Bystrica, 42 km away. See how Slovakia compares in the castle statistics.

View on the interactive castle map →

Read the full history on Wikipedia (in Polish) ↗