Castle Oponice (Appony)

Oponice, Slovakia, Slovakia

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Castle Oponice (Appony Castle) in Oponice, Slovakia, is a late 13th-century Gothic fortress built by the powerful Csák family on a terraced promontory in the Tríbeč Mountains to control the Nitra River valley trade route from Topoľčany to Bratislava. First recorded in 1300 as "castrum Oponh" under Magister Csák, brother of oligarch Máté Csák, its oval-shaped upper ward featured a cylindrical bergfried tower up to 20 meters high with thick walls serving as final refuge, later expanded with a zwinger wall, pentagonal foregate, Renaissance bastions like the western cannon tower, and family palaces by the Apponyi lineage from 1612. Passed through noble hands with late Renaissance residential additions, it fell into partial ruin but preserves key elements including reconstructed tower faces from 2015-2016 works, highlighting its evolution from medieval defense to aristocratic seat.