1241–1242 · charter of 19 September 1249 One of the few that heldJeden z mála, ktorý odolal

In 1241 a Mongol army destroyed the royal army of Hungary and rode across most of the kingdom. Almost every Slovak castle has a local story about being destroyed by them, and almost every one of those stories is impossible, because the castle was built afterwards — Spiš is one of the rare places that really was standing and really did hold. What followed was not repair but reinforcement: north-Italian master masons worked here through the thirteenth century and afterwards at Spišská Kapitula and Spišský Štvrtok. On 19 September 1249 King Béla IV confirmed the Spiš provost's ownership of the village of Jablonov and gave him leave to build a tower and a palace in castro nostro Scypus — in our castle of Spiš. Béla's answer to the invasion was stone castles on high rock everywhere in the kingdom; here he was adding to one that had already proved his point.V roku 1241 mongolské vojsko rozdrvilo uhorskú kráľovskú armádu a prešlo väčšinou kráľovstva. Takmer každý slovenský hrad má miestnu historku o tom, ako ho zničili Mongoli, a takmer každá je nemožná, lebo hrad vznikol až po nich — Spišský hrad je jedno z mála miest, ktoré vtedy naozaj stálo a naozaj odolalo. Nasledovala nie oprava, ale zosilnenie: v 13. storočí tu pracovali kamenárski majstri zo severného Talianska, ktorí potom stavali aj v Spišskej Kapitule a v Spišskom Štvrtku. 19. septembra 1249 kráľ Belo IV. potvrdil spišskému prepoštovi vlastníctvo obce Jablonov a dovolil mu postaviť vežu a palác in castro nostro Scypus — na našom hrade Spiš. Belova odpoveď na vpád boli kamenné hrady na vysokých skalách po celom kráľovstve; tu len dostaval ten, ktorý mu dal za pravdu už predtým.