Pevnosť Bzovík

Slovakia, Slovakia

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Pevnosť Bzovík is a fortified Premonstratensian monastery near the village of Bzovík in central Slovakia, originally founded as a Benedictine abbey around 1130 by the Hunt-Poznan family and later transitioned to Premonstratensians by 1180. In 1530, nobleman Žigmund Balassa seized it from the monks, transforming the Romanesque complex into a Gothic-Renaissance anti-Ottoman fortress by encircling it with high walls, four rounded corner bastions with gunports, a moat, drawbridge portal, and military barracks completed by 1548. Successfully resisting Turkish assaults, it endured further damage from Thököly's forces in 1678 and World War II before partial modern reconstruction, preserving ruins of the church, cloister, and fortifications as a cultural site accessible by car or foot.