With the castle a ruin and the Ottomans gone, the town's centre of gravity moved down to the square below it. The estate passed through the hands of great families — the Kolonič, the Csáky, the Esterházy — while the real work of the place became fairs, crafts, grain and the wine of the surrounding slopes. The county offices never came back: from 1735 Tekov county was administered from Zlaté Moravce. Levice kept the memory of having been a county town, which is why the museum in the manor house is called the Tekov Museum to this day.S hradom v ruinách a Turkami preč sa ťažisko života presunulo dole na námestie. Panstvo prechádzalo rukami veľkých rodov — Koloničovcov, Čákiovcov, Esterháziovcov — kým skutočnou prácou mesta boli jarmoky, remeslá, obilie a víno z okolitých svahov. Úrady sa už nevrátili: od roku 1735 sa Tekovská stolica spravovala zo Zlatých Moraviec. Levice si však pamäť stoličného mesta nechali — preto sa múzeum v kaštieli dodnes volá Tekovské.
