Čachtice Castle

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View from west.

Ruins.

The Čachtice Castle (IPA: tʃaxtjɪt͡se) (Slovak: Čachtický hrad, Hungarian: Csejte vára) is a castle ruin in Slovakia next to the village of Čachtice. It stands on a hill featuring rare plants, and has been declared a national nature reserve for this reason. The castle was a residence and later the prison of the world's most prolific female serial killer, the Countess Alžbeta (Elizabeth Báthory: 1560-1614).

Čachtice was built in the mid-13th century by Kazimir of the House of Hunt-Poznan as a sentry on the road to Moravia. Later, it belonged to Matúš Čák, of the Stibor zo Stiboríc family, and then to the famous Bloody Lady Elizabeth Báthory. Čachtice, it's surrounding lands and villages, was a wedding gift from the Nádasdy family upon Elizabeth's marriage to Ferencz Nádasdy in 1575. It is famous now because her sadism exceeded even the violence and cruelty normally permitted to powerful elites of the time. It is very likely she was insane, but the Countess Alžbeta's excesses were aided and abetted by her husband and others, and her murders ignored for years by her powerfully connected family.

Originally, Čachtice was a Romanesque castle with an interesting horse-shoe shaped residence tower. It was turned to a Gothic castle later and its size was increased in the 15th and 16th centuries. A Renaissance renovation followed in the 17th century. Finally, in 1708 the castle was captured and plundered by the rebels of Francis II Rákóczi. It has been in decay since.