According
to legends, castle Gymes was built in the beginning of 13 century on
place of old Slavic fort
Dievčí Kameň (Girl' or Virgin' Rock) by Ondrej of Hont-Poznanovcy
family, later named Forgáč. This Ondrej supposedly got the right to
build stone castle directly from the king Béla IV (1206-1270)
because he helped Bela to get away from the battle – Ondrej gave
him his own horse and so king survived.
The
name Gymes might be from old Hungarian “gim” - deer (there is
still a village nearby named Jelena - Deer's).
First
credible written source mentioning the castle is from year 1253 and
describes it as two towers stone castle with walls named Gymes.
Forgáč
family held the castle for +-700 years which is quite a record in
history. There were brief periods when castle was taken from them by
enemies – other nobles and Turks, but it always got back to the
dynasty.
Family
used it to defend the whole valley of Nitra river, where they had
other castles, Gymes was significant fort in battles with Tatars and
Turks, few times it was overtaken and burned but always restored
because it was an important defense point in the country.
At
later times though when castles in general lost their military
purpose it was rebuild to baroque mansion with large palace and church
but eventually was abandoned as more comfortable seat was built for
the family. Unfortunately the last owner of Gymes Karol Forgáč in
1833 took the roof off the castle to use on his sugar factory and
roofless ruins were devastated by weather pretty soon.
Karol
died in 1911 without any descendants although there were 46 women who
filed a lawsuit to inherit Karol' estates, all of them have kids,
some even several, who were supposedly his, but none of their claims
were satisfied. So castle become state property and is so for today,
you can visit it whole year around for free.
There
is a legend saying St.Mary herself protects the castle at all times
and not once she destroyed enemies with fire when castle defenders
prayed to her before the battle. Everytime they call, she sent sword
of fire from the the sky to burn invaders to ashes.The castle web: https://www.gymes.sk
From above: https://youtu.be/2aQzkR-PytQ?si=xycmpU1ph5TKloBA
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