Brekov Castle

Brekov, Slovakia, Slovakia

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Brekov Castle is a ruined Gothic and Renaissance-era stone fortress perched on a cone-shaped limestone hill at about 280 meters above sea level above the village of Brekov in eastern Slovakia's Humenné District. Built in the second half of the 13th century on the site of an earlier Slavic hillfort from the early Middle Ages, it began as a small oval core with an integrated tower, later expanded by the Drugeth family after 1321 into a multi-phase stronghold guarding regional roads and borders with added citadel, baileys, bastions, and gatehouses. Damaged repeatedly during 17th-century rebellions including by Rákóczi's forces in 1644, it was fully abandoned by 1684, leaving well-preserved walls, bulwarks, and towers amid scenic Vihorlat Mountains views accessible today by hike.