The first time Bojnice appears in writing it is not because anything happened here. It is because the Benedictine abbey on Zobor hill above Nitra had its properties listed in a charter in 1113, and Bojnice is on the list. That makes it one of the earliest places in what is now Slovakia to be named in a document that has survived — but be careful what that means. It is a fact about a piece of parchment, not about when people arrived. What stood on the rock then was a wooden fort, and the rock itself, travertine laid down by warm springs, had been drawing people to it for tens of thousands of years.Keď sa Bojnice po prvý raz objavia v písomnosti, nie je to preto, že by sa tu niečo stalo. Je to preto, že benediktínske opátstvo na Zobore nad Nitrou si dalo roku 1113 spísať svoje majetky — a Bojnice sú na tom zozname. Patria tak k najskôr písomne doloženým miestam na území dnešného Slovenska, len treba vedieť, čo to znamená. Je to údaj o pergamene, nie o tom, kedy sem prišli ľudia. Na skale vtedy stálo drevené hradisko a samotná skala — travertín vyzrážaný teplými prameňmi — priťahovala ľudí desaťtisíce rokov predtým.
