Fiľakovo Castle

Fiľakovo castle sits on a plug of volcanic rock rising out of the Novohrad basin, and its position on what became the Ottoman frontier gave it a hard history: it was taken in 1554 and held for forty years as the seat of an Ottoman sanjak, retaken, and finally destroyed in 1682. What survives is walls, bastions and a tower, consolidated with a museum inside, and the volcanic country around it is dotted with similar outcrops.

History

People lived on the castle hill from about 3500 BC, a stone castle probably stood here in the 12th century, and the first written mention, of 1242, records that it held out against the Mongols. It had several owners, Matthew III Csák among them, and the ruins have been conserved since 1972, with an exhibition in the rebuilt Bebek Bastion (Wikipedia, Fiľakovo Castle).

What's there

• The volcanic plug - the rock the castle is built on, a hardened volcanic neck.
• The bastions - sixteenth-century artillery works around the lower castle.
• The tower museum - displays on the castle and the frontier period.
• The Novohrad basin - volcanic country spreading out below the walls.

When to go

April to October is the main season; winter hours are reduced. Summer brings a historical festival to the castle. Mornings are quietest.

Practical notes

The ruin is fragmentary and much of the site is foundations. Labelling is in Slovak and Hungarian. The town around is workaday.

Nearby

Somoska is southeast, and Lucenec is north.

Key facts