Nógrád

The castle of Nógrád stands on a hill above the northern Hungarian countryside. Its name, of Slavic origin, means a new castle, and it gave its name to the surrounding county. The stronghold belonged to the bishops of Vác, who maintained a residence there amid the hills north of the Danube.

Bishop Miklós Báthori rebuilt Nógrád at the end of the fifteenth century, adding Renaissance work to its medieval fortifications. The garrison abandoned it to the Ottomans in 1544, but Christian forces retook it fifty years later. Captured again in 1663, the castle was ruined when lightning struck its powder store in 1685. Its remaining defences were demolished during the Kuruc uprising in the early eighteenth century, leaving the hilltop castle in ruins.