Šomoška Castle

Šomoška castle stands on a basalt hill right on the Hungarian border, built in the fourteenth century from the volcanic rock it sits on, with round towers and walls consolidated in recent decades. Below it is the reason most people come: a face of basalt columns that have bent and collapsed into a formation called the stone waterfall, where hexagonal columns curve over and break as if the rock had poured. A quarry nearby exposes more of the same.

Background

Peter of the Kacsics family built the castle before 1291. A record of 1323 names it castrum Somoskw, and it was also called Drienov. In the latter half of the fifteenth century or early in the sixteenth, three corner towers for cannon were added, the strongest on the west side, 16.5 meters in diameter with walls 3.5 meters thick. More fortification work followed in 1618 and from 1647 to 1655. The ruins were conserved and partly rebuilt in the 1970s, and parts were renovated in 2025. The castle lies within the Cerová vrchovina Protected Landscape Area. The stone waterfall formed approximately 4 million years ago, in the Pliocene, as basaltic lava solidified.

Source: Wikipedia, "Šomoška Castle"

Highlights

• The stone waterfall - basalt columns bent and collapsed into a cascade of rock.
• The castle - a fourteenth-century ruin built from the basalt it stands on.
• The columnar basalt - hexagonal columns exposed in the hillside and quarry.
• The border - the castle straddling the Slovak and Hungarian frontier.

When to go

April to October is the main season. The castle closes in winter but the stone waterfall is reachable year round. Autumn colour in the surrounding forest is good.

What to expect

The walk from the car park to the stone waterfall and up to the castle is steep. The castle interior is limited. Facilities are minimal.

Nearby

Filakovo is northwest, and the Cerova highlands run north.

Key facts