The Fame of the Cachtice Castle Springs from the Dark History of the Bloody Lady

The Cachtice Castle is one of frontier castles in Male Karpaty Mountains. The frontier castles were built in the Middle Ages. The Cachtice Castle was destroyed by fire in the early 1700s.

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The fame of this castle springs from the dark history of Elizabeth Bathory, the Bloody Lady of Cachtice. She is considered the most famous serial killer according the Guinness Book of the World Records. There are many replicas of her. She spent most of her life at the Cachtice Castle. She was accused of torturing and killing numerous girls and young women (20 - 2000 victims, depending on the source). In 1610, she was imprisoned in solitary confinement, where she stayed until her death four years later. There is a a replica of the Bloody Lady portrait in the Cachtice Museum. The original portrait of the Countess from 1585 is lost. She was 25 when the original portrait - the only known image of her - was painted.

The Historical museum is in the Renaissance Draskovic Castle. The introduction presents palaeontological and archaeological finds from the environs of Cachtice, the historical section is devoted to the castle and the village. The closing section of museum shows written and picture material on the literary association Tatrin which had its session at Cachtice on August 9 - 10, 1847. By accepting the new literary language, it took an important step towards unifying the Slovak national movement.

A route to the castle ruins begins at the village square. Use green mark. This route is suitable for bicycles. No car entrance (2009). Another way is high - pitched path to the castle ruins from the Visnove village. Visnove is about five kilometers away from the Cachtice village, just below the castle.

The Castle Hill is 370 meters above the sea level. The area of the castle is huge like a playground. There are many towers and fragments of the walls.

The ruins created an impressive scenery during sthe shooting of crazy Czech comedy The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians in 1981. There is a desk to evoke this popular movie.

How to get there:

By car from Bratislava – Go by the highway E 75 (D1) and turn right to the exit Vrbove. You must turn right to the Krakovany village just before the Vrbove town. You can stop at the Ockov village by the way to the Cachtice village. There is an archeological exposition. The next village is Podolie. It is another occasion to stop. There is the exposition of the Slovak medieval castles miniatures. Cachtice is the next village. You will see the Church with a bridge upon the motorway and the Renaissance castle at the left side. The green mark will lead you to the castle ruins. You can go there by foot, car entrance is forbiden (2009), the way ends near the ruins. It is about 40 minutes by foot from the village to the Castle Hill.

Another way to the Cachtice village is from the Nove Mesto nad Vahom town. This way we recommend for those, who spent a holiday near the town – at the Zelena Voda Lake. Cachtice is about 7 kilometers from Nove Mesto nad Vahom at south-east direction.

The way from Bratislava to the Cachtice village is less than 100 kilometers.

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Cachticke podzemie - 12.9.2010

Po dlhych pripravach sa podarilo spristupnit pre verejnost malu cast historickeho podzemia pod Cachticami, vybudovanu uz v 15 storoci. Pozriet sa môzete do Nadasdyovskych chodieb po ktorych sa mozno prechadzala i Alzbeta Bathoryova, ktorej patrili. Su vybudovane v kopci na ktorom stal jej kastiel a dochoval sa v nich i v hline vyryty erb jej manzela, turkobijca Frantiska Nadasdyho. Prehliadka je spojena s videoprezentaciou o zivote Alzbety Bathoryovej v miestnom muzeu. Nakolko sa sezona skoncila, je mozne sa objednat na slovenskepodzemie/zavinac/gmail.com
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