Zemplín Castle
Encyclopedia
Zemplín Castle was a former stronghold, administrative center and later private residence located near the River Bodrog
in the village of Zemplín
, Trebišov District
, Košice Region
in Eastern Slovakia
.
occupied and repaired the hill-fort and used it as an administrative center of the Greater Moravian Empire during the 9th and 10th centuries CE. After the fall of Greater Moravia to the Magyar tribes, the land around Zemplín and the hill-fort was taken as well. Recognizing the importance of the location, the local magnates placed as much importance on the castle as the Slavs before them did, making it the administrative center for the entire Zemplín region at the beginning of the new Hungarian Kingdom in the early 11th century. During the 12th and 13th centuries the castle was expanded beyond the simple hill-fort. A romanesque church dedicate to St. Juraj was built and shortly thereafter a larger stone wall around the perimeter of the castle. Around the same time Zemplín Castle was made the administrative center for the Church in the region.
By the early 14th century the castle was owned by Drugeth family
, followed 250 years later by the Pereni family. During the anti-Habsburg revolts of later centuries the castle was burned and today nothing remains. Two churches, one built in 1628 and the other in 1804, occupy most of the area the castle once occupied making future archaeological exploration of this castle untenable.
Bodrog
The Bodrog is a river in eastern Slovakia and north-eastern Hungary. It is a tributary to the river Tisza. The Bodrog is formed by the confluence of the rivers Ondava and Latorica near Zemplin in eastern Slovakia...
in the village of Zemplín
Zemplín
Zemplén is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently situated in eastern Slovakia under the name of Zemplín...
, Trebišov District
Trebišov District
Trebišov District is a district inthe Košice Region of eastern Slovakia.Until 1918, the district was mostly part of the Hungarian county of Zemplín, apart from a small area...
, Košice Region
Košice Region
The Košice Region is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions. It consists of 11 districts .-Geography:It is located in the southern part of eastern Slovakia and covers an area of 6,752 km²...
in Eastern Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
.
History
The site where Zemplín Castle stood was first occupied by an early Celtic hill-fort. After the Celts left, early SlavsSlavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
occupied and repaired the hill-fort and used it as an administrative center of the Greater Moravian Empire during the 9th and 10th centuries CE. After the fall of Greater Moravia to the Magyar tribes, the land around Zemplín and the hill-fort was taken as well. Recognizing the importance of the location, the local magnates placed as much importance on the castle as the Slavs before them did, making it the administrative center for the entire Zemplín region at the beginning of the new Hungarian Kingdom in the early 11th century. During the 12th and 13th centuries the castle was expanded beyond the simple hill-fort. A romanesque church dedicate to St. Juraj was built and shortly thereafter a larger stone wall around the perimeter of the castle. Around the same time Zemplín Castle was made the administrative center for the Church in the region.
By the early 14th century the castle was owned by Drugeth family
Drugeth
The Drugeth was a noble family of the Kingdom of Hungary in the 14-17th centuries whose possessions were situated on the north-eastern parts of the kingdom. The ancestors of the family left Apulia for Hungary during the reign of King Charles I...
, followed 250 years later by the Pereni family. During the anti-Habsburg revolts of later centuries the castle was burned and today nothing remains. Two churches, one built in 1628 and the other in 1804, occupy most of the area the castle once occupied making future archaeological exploration of this castle untenable.