Bojnice Castle
Romantic turreted castle above a spa town, now a Slovak National Museum branch with a travertine cave.
A wooden fort stood on the travertine rock above Bojnice by the twelfth century, and a stone castle grew from it under the Poznan family and later the Thurzós, who gave it a Renaissance form. Its present appearance dates from 1889 to 1910, when Count János Pálffy commissioned the architect Jozef Hubert to remodel the whole complex in the manner of the Loire châteaux, adding steep roofs, slender turrets and an elaborate entrance range.
Pálffy filled the rooms with tapestries, furniture and paintings gathered on his travels, among them a fourteenth-century Italian altarpiece attributed to Nardo di Cione. Since 1950 the castle has been a museum and it now forms a branch of the Slovak National Museum. The tour route takes in the Golden Hall with its carved and gilded ceiling, the chapel, the Pálffy crypt and a natural travertine cave beneath the courtyard, reached by a shaft cut through the rock.
Highlights
- Loire-style remodelling of 1889-1910 for Count János Pálffy
- Golden Hall with carved and gilded ceiling
- Italian altarpiece attributed to Nardo di Cione
- Travertine cave under the castle courtyard
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