1 October 1997 · the 2000s A national park, and horses instead of a garrisonNárodný park a kone namiesto posádky

On 1 October 1997 the plateau became the Muránska planina National Park — 203 square kilometres of karst tableland, with a buffer zone almost as large again. That turned the castle's whole meaning inside out. For seven hundred years this rock was valuable because it was hard to get to; now the same emptiness is valuable because emptiness has become rare. Conservation went on, the gate was rebuilt and viewing platforms put in during the 2000s, and most people who make the climb today come as much for the plateau as for the walls: karst meadows, flowers that grow on this limestone and almost nowhere else, and the semi-wild horses that are the park's emblem. Watch them from a distance and do not feed them — they are not tame.1. októbra 1997 sa z planiny stal Národný park Muránska planina — 203 kilometrov štvorcových krasovej tabule a ochranné pásmo takmer takej istej rozlohy. Zmysel hradu sa tým obrátil naruby. Sedemsto rokov bola táto skala cenná preto, že sa k nej ťažko dostávalo; dnes je tá istá prázdnota cenná preto, že prázdnoty je málo. Konzervácia pokračovala, v prvom desaťročí nového storočia obnovili bránu a osadili vyhliadkové plošiny, a väčšina tých, čo dnes vyjdú hore, prichádza rovnako pre planinu ako pre múry: pre krasové lúky, pre kvety, ktoré rastú na tomto vápenci a takmer nikde inde, a pre polodivoké kone, ktoré sú znakom parku. Pozorujte ich z diaľky a nekŕmte ich — krotké nie sú.