City of Gelnica id dominated by a rock cliff with former Gelnica Castle ruins. It was built during the reign of King Ondrej II of Hungary in 1234. It was built to protect the city and the mines. Already in the 13th century it survived the 1st Tartar invasion. In the 15th century the castle got into the hands of Jan Jiskra and later the Brethren troops.
After the retreat of the enemy army King Matthias dedicated King Matthew Gelnica castle and town to Zápoľský family. In 1527 during the fight of the Hungarian throne between Ferdinand Habsburg and Ján Zápoľský the castle was destroyed. After the defeat of Zápoľský Ferdinand donated the castle to Alexej Thurzo, who restored and enlarged it. Since then it was referred to as "Thurzo castle ".
Thurzos owned the castle until 1636 when the last male descendant Michal Thurzo died. In 1638 Ferdinand III donated the castle to Earl Stephen Čáki and his wife Eva Forgáč. The advent of Čáki family into the castle moved up to year 1652nd due to Juraj Rákoczi uprising. Under their reign there were many uprisings and so the castle and town passed from hand to hand. At that time, the castle was completely destroyed. But it is not certain whether it was already in 1685 or 1710th.
From 1765 the castle area served as a site of military training of Gelnica hussars. At the command of the board of the city, material from the castle walls was used to build the town hall and adjacent buildings. In 1839 the castle passed to the city administration, which let to remove the damaged parts of it. In 1963 began the exploration of the castle grounds and surrounding area.
It was found that around 14 underground corridors end up in the Gelnica Castle area. During excavations there were found objects like keys, spurs, guns etc. To this day there is present the legend od castle lady Zuzana.
From the window of the castle tower during jingle of the swords and armor watched beautiful castle lady Zuzana the unequal struggle. Against great odds, however, the defenders of the castle did not have a chance. So the castle lady at the last minute took all the jewels from the castle treasure and threw them into the well in the courtyard to get them out of enemy hands.
Finally, she also plunged her children and herself into its depths. Since the well had a connection to the river, her corpse was caught by fishermen and buried under the castle walls. However it was never found, and thus still might be hidden somewhere in secret underground passages.
Article author: TIK Gelnica