Almost every ruined castle in Slovakia is said locally to have been destroyed by the Turks. The record here says something else: during the uprising of Francis II Rákóczi at the beginning of the eighteenth century the castle was badly damaged by imperial troops — the emperor's own soldiers, taking a stronghold that had gone over to the rebels. That was the standard treatment. A castle in insurgent hands was worth more to Vienna as a ruin than as a fortress, and dozens of Slovak castles were deliberately slighted in and after those wars. If you remember one thing about Slovak castle ruins, remember that most of them were wrecked by their own government.Takmer o každej slovenskej zrúcanine sa doma hovorí, že ju zničili Turci. Tu záznamy hovoria niečo iné: počas povstania Františka II. Rákociho na začiatku osemnásteho storočia hrad ťažko poškodilo cisárske vojsko — teda vlastní vojaci panovníka, ktorí dobýjali pevnosť, čo prešla k povstalcom. Bol to bežný postup. Hrad v rukách povstalcov mal pre Viedeň väčšiu cenu ako zrúcanina než ako pevnosť a desiatky slovenských hradov dali počas týchto vojen a po nich zámerne rozbiť. Ak si o slovenských zrúcaninách máte zapamätať jednu vec, tak túto: väčšinu z nich rozbila vlastná vláda.
