While the castle emptied, the village filled: in 1785 Blatnica had 1,015 inhabitants, a substantial place for the Turiec of that time. The lords stopped living on the rock and built themselves a comfortable kúria — a small country manor house — down among the ordinary houses; the Prónay family were the ones who did it. That move from crag to village street is the whole eighteenth century in a single gesture: defence had stopped being the point of a noble house, and comfort had taken over. The castle above was left to the weather.Kým sa hrad vyprázdňoval, dedina rástla: roku 1785 mala Blatnica 1 015 obyvateľov, čo bola na vtedajší Turiec slušná obec. Páni prestali bývať na skale a postavili si pohodlnú kúriu, teda menšie vidiecke šľachtické sídlo, priamo medzi obyčajnými domami; urobili to Prónayovci. Tento presun z brala na dedinskú ulicu je celé 18. storočie v jedinom geste — obrana prestala byť zmyslom šľachtického domu a nahradilo ju pohodlie. Hrad nad dedinou nechali napospas počasiu.
