When the Ottoman frontier came close to the Hron the valley turned into a military corridor, and both ends of this stretch of it were fortified. Downstream, Levice castle was rebuilt as a frontier fortress; upstream, the Benedictine abbey at Hronský Beňadik was given curtain walls, bastions and a gate tower in the sixteenth century so it could hold the road to Kremnica and Banská Štiavnica. Tlmače, in between, had nothing at all to defend itself with. That is the usual position of a village in a war zone: no walls, no chronicle, and a history you have to read off its neighbours'.Keď sa osmanská hranica priblížila k Hronu, dolina sa stala vojenskou chodbou a oba konce tohto úseku opevnili. Po prúde prestavali levický hrad na pohraničnú pevnosť; proti prúdu dostalo benediktínske opátstvo v Hronskom Beňadiku v 16. storočí hradby, bašty a vstupnú vežu, aby udržalo cestu na Kremnicu a Banskú Štiavnicu. Tlmače medzi nimi nemali čím sa brániť. To je obvyklé postavenie dediny vo vojnovom pásme: bez hradieb, bez kroniky a s dejinami, ktoré sa dajú čítať len z dejín susedov.
