Gýmeš is one of very few Slovak castles where masons were still at work in the eighteenth century. The Gothic palace was rebuilt as the burial crypt of the Forgáč family with a chapel — which tells you what the castle had become: a monument to a family rather than a place to be defended. In 1712 Bishop Pavol Forgáč paid 130,000 florins for the castle, and then spent his money down in the valley: a Baroque parish church for the village between 1720 and 1722, and from 1722 a Baroque manor house on the flat ground. That is where the family went to live. A ridge with no road, that no carriage could reach, had simply lost to comfort.Gýmeš je jedným z mála slovenských hradov, kde murári pracovali ešte v 18. storočí. Gotický palác vtedy prestavali na rodovú kryptu Forgáčovcov s kaplnkou — a to dobre hovorí o tom, čím sa hrad stal: pamätníkom rodu, nie miestom, ktoré treba brániť. V roku 1712 zaplatil biskup Pavol Forgáč za hrad 130 000 zlatých, peniaze však míňal dole v doline: v rokoch 1720 – 1722 dal postaviť barokový kostol a od roku 1722 barokový kaštieľ na rovine. Tam sa rod presťahoval. Hrebeň bez cesty, na ktorý sa nedalo dôjsť kočom, jednoducho prehral s pohodlím.
