Veľký Kamenec Castle

Access and surroundings
Access to the ruins of Veľký Kamenec Castle is very easy. On the main road through the village of Veľký Kamenec, on a street called Evropská, we stop at the Municipal Office, right at a small crossroads with a small park. Here we can park the car - in front of the post office building, which is adjacent to the Municipal Office, or right next to the Municipal Office there is space for several cars. From there it is only a few meters to the castle, next to the manor house we pass stairs, then a smaller hill on which the ruin is located.

Interior and exterior
The original core of the castle - the tower and the perimeter fortifications - stood on the highest peak of the castle hill. A part of the medieval castle was probably a cistern in the courtyard. The area also includes ramparts and walls extending to the church below the castle, which could have been part of it.
Several walls of the castle have been preserved - a corner pentagonal massive bastion and a considerably destroyed round cannon bastion. The walls indicate an almost triangular floor plan of the castle with round and polygonal bastions on the corners. Cannon firing ranges and window openings have been preserved on the polygonal bastion with the adjacent wall. At the place where the courtyard was, a cistern is cut into the stone, still quite recognizable today.

History and personalities
There are no more precise reports about the beginnings of the castle. It was probably built in the middle of the 13th century after the Tartar invasion. It was allegedly exhibited in 1247 by Lorand of the Rathold family. The settlement of Kamenec (Kuezd) was in 1280 the property of Matej and Ratold from the Ratótov family, who exchanged it for other property with the Bokšovci family. Their family grew rapidly until the division of property was necessary. During the division in 1323, Kamenec belonged to the Soós family and the Szerdahely family. Kamenec Castle (Kuwezd castrum) is also mentioned for the first time. There were constant disputes between the owners, they did not even take good care of the castle, which was already in 1438 in a very bad condition and partly abandoned.

A year later, King Albrecht died and Ján Szerdahelyi, who illegally appropriated Kamenec, took advantage of his almost helplessness. In the years 1444 to 1450, the castle was briefly held by the lords of Pavloviec (Palóczi). However, after the death of Ján Szerdahelyi, the castle remained under his wife's administration. Ján Hunyadi could not leave the castle without boy protection and therefore in 1450 he decided an endless dispute in favor of Juraj and Mikuláš Soós. Shortly afterwards, Ján Jiskra invaded Zemplín and after heavy fighting in 1451 Kamenec conquered. In 1453, Jiskra was forced to leave the country and his mercenaries joined his brothers.
In 1458, the army of the new king Matej Korvín crushed his brother's field companies near Sárospatak, but the castle was still controlled by the brothers. A year later, however, the royal troops also conquered the castle, where they signed a peace treaty between Jiskr and Ján Hunyady. From 1527, the country was plundered by the mercenaries of two kings - Ján Zápoľský and Ferdinand of Habsburg. A supporter of the Zápoľsk family - Captain František Németh, occupied Kamenec in 1556, but already in 1558 Ferdinand's general Imrich Telekessy recaptured the castle.
Probably as a result of these events at the end of the 15th century, the Soos family made major repairs to the castle and built a large fortification. However, in the 17th century, when the then owner Juraj Soós took an active part in the Wesselényi uprising, the imperial army occupied the castle in 1672 and demolished a year later.