1657–1705 The prince born in the castleKnieža narodené na hrade

On 25 September 1657 Imrich Thököly was born in the castle. He grew up in a Protestant magnate family at war with a Catholic court — his father died in December 1670 while imperial troops besieged the family's Orava Castle — and he came back as leader of the kuruc revolt, the Protestant and noble rising that burned across Upper Hungary in the 1670s and 1680s. In 1682 the Ottoman sultan recognised him as ruler of Upper Hungary; when the Ottoman army broke before Vienna in 1683 his power broke with it, and he died in exile in Ottoman İzmit in 1705. The one clear winner was the town: with the Thököly estates confiscated, Kežmarok bought the castle outright in 1702, after two centuries of trying.25. septembra 1657 sa na hrade narodil Imrich Tököli. Vyrastal v protestantskej magnátskej rodine v spore s katolíckym dvorom — otec mu zomrel v decembri 1670, keď cisárske vojsko obliehalo rodinný Oravský hrad — a vrátil sa ako vodca kuruckého povstania, protihabsburskej vzbury protestantov a šľachty, ktorá v 70. a 80. rokoch 17. storočia zachvátila horné Uhorsko. V roku 1682 ho osmanský sultán uznal za vládcu horného Uhorska; keď sa v roku 1683 turecké vojsko zlomilo pred Viedňou, zlomila sa s ním aj jeho moc a Tököli zomrel v roku 1705 vo vyhnanstve v osmanskom Izmite. Jediným jasným víťazom bolo mesto: Tököliovcom skonfiškovali majetky a Kežmarok si hrad v roku 1702 konečne kúpil — po dvesto rokoch snaženia.