Drégely castle

The small castle was probably built by the Bozók branch of the Hunt-Poznan family in the second half of the 13th century, during the time of the Árpád dynasty, by order of King Béla IV. It was first mentioned in 1285 as the possession of Demeter of the Hunt-Poznan family. Drégely came under military control again after a long time following the fall of Buda in 1541. It became part of the border castle system designed to repel invaders of the Ottoman Empire. Archbishop Pál Várday spent much money to strengthen the castle. In 1543 Drégely became part of the first line of defence for the kingdom. In 1544 Várday appointed György Szondy to be castellan of the castle and the governor of the Drégely estate. Szondy tried to fortify the small fortress against Turkish invaders. In 1552 Hadim Ali Pasha of Buda marched up to Drégely Castle to besiege it. The defenders of the castle consisted of 120 men hired by King Ferdinand and 26 warriors sent by the royal mining town of Selmec. They fought until the last man, but despite of their heroic death, the castle was taken. The completely ruined stone castle of Drégely was not renewed agaid. Turkish troops used its remnants as a watch-post for a while, then in 1575 built a new earth fortress in near village of Palánk. The castle hill was enclosed by the neighbouring forest. We created the reconstruction based on the research of Maxim Mordovin,Zoltán Simon and Balázs Szőke.