The village of Turňa nad Bodvou lies between Rožňava and Košice at the southern foot of the Slovak Karst near the Bodva River. It is mentioned as early as 1198, and according to some researchers, a small castle was already standing here at that time. In 1234, when it was owned by the Turnian family (Tornay), it was called Tornus. After the Tartar invasion, they built a castle consisting of a prismatic tower. It served to protect Gemer's journey to Spiš. The locality was given to the predecessor of the Tornay family as a reward for the services he demonstrated in the defense of the country during the Tatar invasion of Hungary. We can consider him as the builder of a stone castle. Until then, the village was also a royal property. The documents state that the castle was not built until 1357, when the village became the center of the castle estate. However, the then owner Ján Tornay expanded and repaired the castle this year. It was a reconstruction of an older castle, which belonged to the Tornay family until 1406. After the extinction of the family, which derived its name from the name of the locality, the castle was acquired for a short time by Štefan Šafár of Branč (1409), from whom the Bebek family acquired the property. Around 1448 it was occupied by Jiskra's troops. Imrich Zápoľský bought the castle in 1476 and members of this family owned the local property until 1531. In the years 1540-50, they carried out new fortification work on the building, which forced the Turkish danger. It was part of a large anti-Turkish fortress system, belonging to the border castles. Despite these construction works, the Turks occupied the castle in 1652.
During the estate uprising in the 17th century, led by Thököly, General Schultz had the castle demolished in 1685. It has been in ruins ever since. The association for the rescue of Turnian Castle is trying to restore it, according to the project of monumental restoration from the 70s of the last century.
The oldest part of the complex is a prismatic tower standing in its core, originally accessible only from the height of the first floor. It had its own fortifications. In 1357, the castle was extended by a new Gothic palace, situated north of the tower, with which it was probably connected. The younger palace stood on the east side of the courtyard. During the great renaissance reconstruction, they built a cannon bastion on the southwest side and two bastions on the south and east. Probably from this period comes the mighty northwestern bastion, protecting the castle from access.
From the medieval castle there are still walls of individual buildings (bastions, walls of fortifications, palaces, towers) and in the terrain the composition of individual spaces is visible. The vaults and architectural details have not been preserved, but there is a nice trouser shooting range and the width of the road through which the castle was made accessible is also noticeable - traces of car wheels are planted in the bedrock. The castle deserves a thorough cleansing of trees and overgrown trees, which make it uncomfortable to move around the area. In the NW bastion you can see traces of digging a landslide and cutting down woody plants.
On the north-western ridge and on the southern side of the castle hill, the original carriage access road has been preserved in the rudiments, as evidenced by the tracks of mechanical and corrosive origin pressed into the Wetterstein limestone. The body of the castle was built of various rocks - Wetterstein limestone and travertines are represented, which sedimented in the western part of the Turnian basin (Hrhov ?, Hrušov? Silická Jablonica?).
Turniansky hrad
044 02 Turňa nad Bodvou
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